


The Frozen Ocean

by kelleigh (girlfromcarolina)



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Environmentalism, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love Again, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Love, M/M, Military, Minor Character Death, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, References to Depression, Reunions, Romance, Suicidal Thoughts, Superheroes, Temporary Character Death, Uncut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 03:25:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15282537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlfromcarolina/pseuds/kelleigh
Summary: Three years ago, the world lost one of its heroes. Jensen Ackles, known to most as ‘Reactor,’ gave his life to save thousands, perhaps even to save our way of life. Jared Padalecki was there that day, amidst the ruin and rubble of battle, holding Jensen in his arms as he died. In the aftermath, as society mourned the loss of their superhero, Jared buried his husband on a quiet Texas hillside.Now, Jared’s living as a shadow of his former self, unable to move beyond his loss, when the arrival of a strange object from deep in outer space sets in motion a series of events that challenges everything Jared thought he knew about Jensen’s past and hoped for their future. From old friends showing up at his door in Vancouver to a secret military base in the middle of Texas, Jared will go and risk everything, including his own sanity, to get Jensen back. But is Jensen still the same man he loved for so long, or will Jared lose him all over again? This time, the battle isn’t about saving the world - it’s about saving what they had.Featuring art by Quickreaver. Written for the 2018 Round of SPN J2 Big Bang.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to the 2018 Supernatural/J2 Big Bang! It all sprung from the smallest storyline in _Justice League_ and took on a life of its own. I'm immensely proud of it, of the work that went into it, and I could not have been happier to work with quickreaver who created the beautiful art.
> 
> Art Master Post on LJ: [HERE](https://quickreaver.livejournal.com/163984.html). Please go and leave her a comment because her pieces are STUNNING.

**PROLOGUE**

“What the hell?”

Staff Sergeant Roland Entranto pauses on the way back to his office. Across the room, a member of his surveillance unit is staring dumbfounded at her screen.

“What is it, Corporal?” he asks, eyes already on the scrolling numbers. As he approaches the corporal’s workstation, the numbers as well as their meaning become clear.

Speed. Trajectory. Time of entry.

“It came out of nowhere, sir,” Corporal Nadia Jimenez says without looking away from the screen, her headset in place over her straight, black hair that’s been pulled back into a neat knot. “Space station wasn’t tracking anything. I was about to contact NASA and see if they know what we’re looking at.”

“Don’t.” 

It comes out as a snapped order, and Jimenez pulls her fingers away from her keyboard. 

“Has anyone else reported this yet? Officially or otherwise?”

Jimenez shakes her head. “As far as I know, sir, no one else is monitoring this particular area.”

The staff sergeant hears the unspoken question. _So why are we?_

“Do we know anything else about the object?”

“Not yet, sir.” Jimenez scans the screen, looking for clues while Entranto does the same thing. “All I know is where it hit. The impact was large enough that it affected our transmissions. Nothing serious, though.”

It could be a coincidence, Entranto tells himself. Objects enter the Earth’s atmosphere all the time–tonnes of meteoroids, micrometeoroids, and space dust. But to hit now, and to hit _there_...Entranto can’t risk doing nothing.

This is the reason his unit exists, after all.

“Sir.”

He hears apprehension and confusion in her address. Never a good sign.

“What now?”

The corporal points to a readout in the bottom right corner of her screen: a bar rapidly moving from green to red.

“Is that–”

“Yes, sir.”

Entranto feels his pulse jump. “Is it contained to the impact crater?”

Jimenez’s fingers type quickly. A map appears on her screen, a detailed satellite image of central Texas displaying a shifting orange area.

“No, sir. It looks like the effects are moving to the east.”

“Shit!” he curses before he can stop himself. To the corporal’s credit, she doesn’t even flinch.

“It’s now less than a mile from Site J-4, sir.”

“How long do we have?”

“Twenty minutes, sir,” Jimenez tells him, “maybe less.”

Entranto takes a deep breath. He’s been waiting three years for a day like this.

“Take us to Level 5, Corporal.”

With the push of a button, the entire unit comes to their feet. They’ve practiced for today without knowing the highly classified reasons behind it, but this is not a drill. One look at the staff sergeant’s expression and the men and women of Fort Jasper know it, too.

“Call Colonel Penikett.” Entranto gives the order to Jimenez. “And tell him to hurry.”

  
**CHAPTER ONE**

The data is mocking him. That, or he’s been staring at these columns of numbers for too long. Either way, Jared Padalecki decides it’s time for a break.

He pushes away from his cluttered desk with a sigh. He’d hoped today would have been better, but it’s closing in on five o’clock and he’s accomplished nothing. Yesterday was the exact same story, and the two weeks before that.

Alright, so it’s been a slow month, and Jared will admit his focus is lagging. It’s not as if he’s too distracted by other things going on in his life. Hell, this job was supposed to _be_ the distraction. Something non-taxing to help him keep up with his research as the Institute made progress, until he was ready to jump back into his own projects.

These days, Jared’s projects are either in the hands of other environmental researchers or shelved indefinitely. Turned out that the day when he would feel ‘ready’ again never came.

He detours to the kitchenette, finds the room empty, and sneaks a Diet Coke from the refrigerator. Someone has taken to stocking the fridge with an extra case, though Jared still pretends it’s not because he’s developed something of an addiction. He makes himself a promise to quit drinking them soon–all that fake sugar isn’t doing his skin any favors, he thinks, scratching a hand through his uneven beard growth. Or his liver, for that matter.

Soda in hand, Jared returns to his office. This one is smaller than the office he used to have; the extra space was unnecessary after dropping his projects. It’s a wonder Sterling let him keep an office at all, but his boss seems to think Jared is still contributing to the Institute’s work despite his own feelings to the contrary.

An hour later, Jared calls it quits for the day. On his way through the lobby, one of the interns, a lean college student with jet black hair and two piercings in each ear, stops him and asks if he’s going to the Trick Pony later. It’s Cameron’s birthday, the intern says, grinning like he’d summoned all his courage just to ask the question.

Jared isn’t even sure he remembers who Cameron is.

He gently tells him no, pretending he made other plans for tonight; the intern hasn’t been around long enough to understand that Jared isn’t really the social type.

Pulling up in front of his apartment building, Jared watches people taking advantage of the warm evening to walk, run, or bike on the outdoor paths, either by themselves or in small, chatty groups. He waits until the coast is clear before heading inside and up two flights of stairs. Shutting his front door, Jared leans back against it and closes his eyes.

He made it through another day.

Dinner winds up being salad mix out of a bag. Not enough to truly sustain him, though the odds that his stomach can handle something more significant are slim to none. Jared keeps telling himself that he’ll cook a decent meal occasionally, but more often than not he grazes on whatever’s left in his refrigerator without using anything in his kitchen except for the microwave.

The mirror in the hallway leading to the bedroom shames Jared as he drifts past. He knows he looks like crap, but his reflection reveals more than he’s comfortable seeing: dark circles under his eyes that are obvious in contrast to his pale skin, the unflattering way his hair has grown since the last time he had it cut. He lacks energy to maintain the beard he’s been growing since he gave up shaving a few weeks ago, and there’s a sharpness to his cheekbones that wasn’t there before.

_Before New Orleans._

The thought has barely slipped into Jared’s mind before the pain comes. Dull, like something heavy pressing over his sternum, and spreading. It’s the kind of pain left behind after anxiety and fear run their course, emotions scraped raw and hollow places carved out in his chest. The kind of ache that Jared feels in places he once thought numb to pain.

It has a name, of course. _Heartache_ in its most undiluted form, the result of a violent and devastating loss. Jared could visit therapists once a week until he steps into his own grave, but the heartache would never go away. 

Most days, the pain is a four, a three if he’s too exhausted to process emotion properly. And then there are days and nights when the dial is cranked high, memories flooding over the walls in his mind and drowning everything else.

Out of nowhere, Jared’s hit a ten tonight. Whether it’s mitigated by the uselessness plaguing him at the Institute, chemicals in his brain feeding his depression, or something beyond his comprehension, the pain is overwhelming.

 _Before_ New Orleans.

 _After_ New Orleans.

It was the ragged fault line that tore through Jared’s life and left a deep, uncrossable crack down the middle; the earth-shattering day that left a city in ruins and consumed a true hero. The day that left Jared a widower.

Jared could try to sleep through the ache or watch something mindless on Netflix until he stops thinking altogether. He could backtrack to the kitchen and use that bottle of whiskey–part of the Institute’s holiday gift to the staff–to numb as much of the ache as possible.

Or, he could make sure tonight is worth the pain.

Normally, Jared tries not to think about the other room in his apartment. He keeps the door shut, passes by on his way in and out of his bedroom, and refuses to step foot inside. But every now and then, when Jared is at his lowest, he walks through that door and into his former life.

He takes a deep breath, knowing it won’t help, and opens the door. One look at the piles and boxes stacked from threshold to window and he feels the sharp edges of his memories start to cut.

Jared’s brother told him to get a storage unit, while his sister offered to deal with all of it. After New Orleans, though, Jared wanted to keep everything close as he stumbled through the stages of grief, stalling out before he got anywhere near acceptance.

The box closest to the door contains the most recent reminders. Newspaper articles he saved without reading, letters sent to Jared on the third anniversary of the battle that were tossed into the box, unopened.

Jared grabs the letter on top, dated two months ago. He rips through the envelope and begins to read.

> _Dear Mr. Padalecki,_
> 
> _On behalf of the New Orleans Restoration Project, you are invited to the dedication of the Memorial Wall next month. This structure will be a permanent reminder of Reactor’s sacrifice and service to our city. As one of the survivors from that day, we’d like you to be there when the memorial is unveiled…_

Jared tears the letter in half without finishing. He picks up a stack of printouts from the _Times-Picayune_ and sees a photo of the memorial itself on the top page.

> _**Memorial Wall Dedication Marks Anniversary**  
>  Citizens, survivors and family members gathered at the newly restored downtown riverfront yesterday to pay tribute to the 1,600 men and women who died during the attack on New Orleans three years ago, and to honor the superhero known as Reactor. The hero, whose real identity remains unknown to this day, perished in the attack, but not before saving tens of thousands of lives. Many will never forget the way Reactor selflessly exhausted the unique energy that was the source of his powers to stop the mysterious invader known as…_

Hard as he tries, Jared must stop reading. The words are nothing compared to the memories he carries, vivid slices of chaos and confusion from that day. The clamor and commotion mixed with screams of the injured and dying he can still hear when he tries to sleep.

Slowly, each piece of paper like a dagger in his hands, Jared works his way through the box until his heart is bleeding from the wounds. When he finally falls asleep on the floor, his dreams are dark and full of smoke.

In the middle of nowhere, Texas, the ground begins to shake.

The seismic event sends Staff Sergeant Entranto’s truck skidding towards the side of the road. Around him, the vehicles in the convoy slam their brakes, red taillights piercing the darkness.

As soon as the truck comes to a stop, so does the tremor. Entranto’s cell rings, and he jumps despite himself. Wisely the corporal driving him refrains from commenting, easing the vehicle back into line instead.

“Entranto,” he answers, voice clipped. “Yes, sir. We’ve got to be close. That’s the second event–yes, stronger this time.”

He listens for a moment, taking in the new information being relayed to him regarding the object and its impact, yet he’s more concerned about the fact that the damn ground is threatening to split open beneath their tires.

“Yes, Colonel,” Entranto says. “We’ll proceed as planned, sir.”

Hanging up, Entranto looks at the corporal and sighs.

“Keep us moving. I need to make another call.”

The corporal acknowledges the order, both of his hands on the wheel. Entranto thinks they may be shaking the same way his own are.

He blames it on the tremors as he dials Fort Jasper’s command center.

“We’re almost there,” he relays. Then, “Start prepping the lab and call in the doctor. I want everything ready by the time we get back.”

“Got a minute, Jared?”

When Jared looks up, Sterling K. Brown is standing in the open door to his office. Jared would call it hovering if it were possible for his boss to do such a thing in the Institute.

It’s his name on the building, after all.

“Sure.” He waves Sterling into the office, trying not to think about the sudden jump in his pulse or the sweat on his palms. “For you, I’ve got more than one.”

An old joke, paired with a grin that Jared hopes is at least semi-convincing.

Sterling sits in the spare chair, looking for all the world like a man who’s here for nothing more than a friendly chat. His jeans are so dark, they’re almost midnight black, a sharp contrast to his white shirt and dove grey vest. The fabrics look soft–Sterling funds more than one project involving organic cotton and wool, non-toxic dyes. His style is suave yet conscientious: bamboo frames around his glasses, eucalyptus skin cream, canvas shoes instead of leather loafers.

It’s been a while since they had a casual chat. Somehow, Jared can’t imagine that today is the day they start again.

“Did you need me for something?”

“Nothing specific,” Sterling says, “just checking in with you. I wanted to see if there was anything you needed from me. Anything I could do to...help.”

The extra beat, a hesitation, doesn’t pass unnoticed. Just like that, Jared feels the weight of the exhaustion and despair he’s been struggling against lately begin to crush him.

Jared sighs. “Listen, Sterling, if you want to let me go, you don’t have to do it gently. I’m not going to snap.”

Sterling holds up a hand. “Whoa, Jared, you’ve got this all wrong.”

The soothing timbre of Sterling’s voice is familiar, and the sound pings more than one memory of him supporting Jared throughout the past ten years they’ve known each other. From taking interest in Jared’s graduate research back at the University of Texas when Sterling was a guest professor for the Environmental Studies department, to making sure Jared had a stable job waiting for him after the dust settled from New Orleans.

“I’m not firing you, Jared,” Sterling continues with the same patience. “You practically helped me build this place.”

It’s a compliment Jared doesn’t feel he deserves, yet it’s not completely off the mark. The Brown Institute for Global Environmental Solutions was nothing more than a half-formed idea when Sterling was teaching graduate classes back in Austin, where he also served as Jared’s advisor. The idea often came up during their meetings, Jared’s passion combining well with Sterling’s global thinking and innovative approach.

Jared was there when Sterling found the property outside Vancouver that would later become the Institute, and he was there for the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony when it finally opened. The job offer that followed was inevitable, but Jared preferred to work in the field. That was where he _thrived_ , especially when he had a partner.

All of that changed after New Orleans.

Sterling tries again. “I know the past few years have been really tough on you, and the stuff you’re working on now, well, it’s not really meant for you, is it?”

Something bitter rises to the back of Jared’s throat. He has to take a deep breath before he says, “I’m doing the work that’s put in front of me. Is there something wrong with the results?”

“Not at all,” Sterling clarifies. “That’s not what I’m saying, Jared. You were meant for more than reviewing regulations and editing grant proposals!” He leans forward in his seat, fixing Jared with his intense gaze. “I just want you to be fulfilled, and I know that’s not happening right now.”

“It’s fine,” Jared tries to say with conviction, but even he can’t make it sound genuine. The work that crosses his desk now is a far cry from the research he once loved. “I mean, it keeps me going.”

“It keeps you showing up every day, you mean.”

Exposed, Jared can only nod.

“I’m glad it does that much,” Sterling admits, settling back into the chair. “I can’t begin to imagine this place without you. Every day, it’d be like something was missing.”

The words come before Jared can stop himself. “I know what that feels like.” 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean–I know it’s not the same thing.”

Sterling’s phone chimes in his pocket, breaking the severity of the moment. As Sterling pulls it out and checks the message, Jared ducks his head to the side, willing himself to get a handle on his emotions.

It’s harder than it should be. 

The last few nights have left him raw and aching. Usually, when he has a bad night, Jared wakes up exhausted, yet able to function. This time he hasn’t been able to shake the creeping despair that clouds his mind and sharpens his tongue. For the last week, he’s woken up unable to breathe, as if from a nightmare he can’t remember yet can’t escape. Meeting his reflection in the bathroom mirror in the morning, he’s barely recognized himself–all he sees now is a man living with a terror he can’t identify, hanging on by a thread.

“Problems with the survey down in Panama,” Sterling says by way of an apology, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “I think I need to send someone down there to help Goulding out.”

“Not really interested,” Jared responds before Sterling can make the offer.

“Okay, what about Argentina? You know I’ve been dying to get that project off the ground, and I remember your ideas for–”

“I can’t. Sterling, I just–I can’t.” Jared’s voice is shaking. His hands, too. He quickly drops them below the desk.

“There’s got to be something you want to work on,” Sterling presses, sending Jared further and further off balance. “One of your old projects. Something you dreamed up with J–”

“Don’t.” Jared begs. “Please, Sterling. Don’t.”

“Why not?”

Jared can’t swallow his outburst. “It’s too much to think about doing on my own! I was never–it wasn’t supposed to be like this! I wasn’t _supposed_ to be doing any of this work alone, Sterling. Trying to do it without...without–”

Sterling weathers the storm like he always does, standing and closing Jared’s office door out of consideration before crossing around to the other side of the desk and laying a supportive hand on Jared’s shoulder as he waits for Jared to regain some of his composure.

But Jared’s reserves are depleted; he has nothing to counter the sorrow. His best shot is trying to replace emotional pain with the physical kind and hope Sterling won’t notice the difference.

“I’ll be okay,” Jared says as he digs blunt fingernails into his thigh. “I promise, Sterling. This is enough for me right now.”

After another moment of silence, during which Jared’s afraid his boss and mentor will see right through his act, Sterling finally lets go and steps away.

“I won’t push,” he tells Jared. “I won’t say it’s easy to watch you give up on the things you used to want, though. I just need you to know that you have a place here as long as you want it, Jared, but I’m afraid that, pretty soon, you might stop wanting that, too.”

Every word stings. Suddenly it feels as if he’s kneeling in a pile of gravel and broken asphalt, every rock and shard digging into his skin while a city falls apart around him. Inhaling the dust from broken buildings and feeling it scar his lungs. Watching a hero give everything within him to stop a madman’s destruction, and all that was bright and good in Jared’s world snuffed out in an instant.

Jared blinks to dispel the horrible memory and tries to get his rapid breathing under control.

By the time Jared feels he can look up and meet Sterling’s gaze without crumbling, his boss has left the office.

The whiskey bottle is heavy in Jared’s hands. Knowing Sterling’s taste in liquor, he wouldn’t have skimped on staff gifts, but Jared doesn’t bother to read the brand off the maroon and gold label before he cracks the seal with a twist and takes a long swallow.

He would never claim to know shit about the differences between bad whiskey and good whiskey–all he knows is that this kind burns less going down than the bottles he could afford back in Austin.

Jared doesn’t remember driving home from the Institute, which scares him enough that he has to take another significant sip in order to banish the haze so that he can see the walls of his kitchen around him.

His life has become something he doesn’t recognize. Jared would barely even call it _living_. The things he used to care about exist as little more than wisps of thought slipping through Jared’s mind.

With Sterling’s speech still ricocheting in his chest, however, Jared begins to wonder what he has left to offer when he’s just suffering through his days. Part of him chooses to suffer, Jared realizes. Embracing the pain because, without it, he might start to forget the things he used to have. He can’t control the synapses in his brain, but choice is not totally beyond him, as more than one person has pointed out in an attempt to be supportive.

Jared tried joining a support group once. Plastic chairs in a lopsided circle, each holding someone diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: diverse men and women sharing stories of war or horrors much closer to home. Eventually, Jared tried sharing his own trauma involving buildings falling around him, bridges collapsing, and people lost forever beneath the rubble. He told them how he lost everything in one tragic afternoon, and that he had yet to find his own way 

Of course, the story of New Orleans was no secret–although the military did their best to obscure the extent of their own involvement–and as soon as the other members of the group were able to connect the dots, Jared found himself fielding questions he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, answer. Whether or not he saw Reactor that day, if he knew who the hero really was. If the stories of aliens were true or if the government was just trying to cover up some sort of nuclear accident.

They meant well, yet every shocked stare scratched at the inside of his skull.

He didn’t make it back the week after that.

His brother and sister, and even Sterling, told Jared to try again. There must be other groups out there, they insisted. Smaller or more discrete. Vancouver was a long way from New Orleans, but he was far from the only person affected by the disaster or the many Reactor-involved incidents that preceded it. They said Jared could find a support group intended for people like him, those who had a tough time relating to those who weren’t there, who didn’t _see_. Those who still didn’t believe the tales of what happened, despite what CNN and BBC News reported.

Sterling isn’t the first to confront Jared the way he did today. He’s gotten similar speeches from his family, although that stopped when his father passed away from a stroke eighteen months ago and they all had their own loss to manage, as well as from the handful of people who knew what he went through. One-on-one interventions, he called them. Variations on the same theme.

_He wouldn’t want you living like this, Jared._

_Imagine what he’d say if he saw you right now._

_Would you want him to go on like this if your places were switched?_

It took Jared a long time to recover after New Orleans. Physically, his injuries healed in a matter of weeks. Emotionally, it was months before he could make it through a day without losing his mind and taking it out on the things around him: mostly furniture, but there were a few unlucky former friends who were caught in his crossfire.

Now, it’s as if Jared is going through the same ordeal all over again. The wounds feel fresh, an ache all the way down to his bones, his mind scattered while he tries to figure out what the hell he’s supposed to do next.

If Jared were an addict, he’d call this a relapse.

He thinks back to that night a week ago when he took the pain he was feeling and exposed it to his memories: a volatile combination. Stoking the fire by throwing everything he could on the pyre–photos, newspaper articles, research proposals, and field notes. Sterling’s words today were like gasoline on the flames.

It all leads to one conclusion, one truth that Jared has been avoiding since the day he woke up in a Louisiana military hospital.

The world _needed_ Reactor. It doesn’t need Jared. Three years ago, they made the wrong sacrifice in New Orleans. If Jared had given his life instead of Reactor–if they could have found a way to use Jared’s body instead of Reactor’s for that final burst of energy that neutralized their enemy–the world would still have its hero, and Jared would have died for someone he loved instead of living in this purgatory.

Jared sets the bottle of whiskey aside and heads for the spare room. His hand isn’t even on the doorknob before his cell phone starts ringing.

The caller ID is blank when he pulls it out of his pocket. Not just blocked–the space is completely empty, not even a single digit of the incoming number on his display.

Out of nowhere, a chill runs down Jared’s spine.

He feels compelled to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“ _Answer your door, Jared_.”

The knocking that follows the words nearly shocks Jared out of his skin. Quick, purposeful raps that don’t leave room for argument.

Jared approaches his front door with slow steps, phone pressed to his ear so tight, it feels like his skin is burning.

“ _I know you’re in there, bud. I can hear myself knocking through the phone._ ”

Jared’s knees are about to buckle, because he knows that voice. Gripping the knob to brace himself, Jared opens the door and comes face to face with a man he hasn’t seen in years.

“Tahmoh?” 

Jared’s voice shakes as he attempts to process the sight of his old friend standing in his doorway. In Vancouver, thousands of miles and what feels like a lifetime away from the last time they were together. Dozens of thoughts compete for space inside Jared’s head, but they’re all plowed aside at the next words out of Tahmoh Penikett’s mouth.

“We need to talk,” Tahmoh says. “It’s about Jensen.”

In a secure bunker built more than fifty feet below Fort Jasper, Roland Entranto turns off his monitor and drops his head into his hands. Knowing he won’t find any answers in this cramped, and fortunately temporary, office below ground, he gets up and begins making his way to the medical lab.

Constructed at the heart of the bunker, the state-of-the-art lab is more advanced than anything Entranto has seen during his long career that spans four countries and more than a dozen bases.

One of the few granted clearance, Entranto uses his encoded badge, paired with his palm print, to enter the lab. The digital white noise from multiple monitors and equipment straight out of a science-fiction novel is much different from what he’s used to up on the surface.

He knows what the machines are there for, but damned if he can translate what they’re telling him. And even if he could understand the language these machines are speaking, Entranto doesn’t think he’d believe if he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes.

The skin over his shoulder blade tingles. Entranto doesn’t want to think about the cross that’s tattooed there. Being a soldier, his religion and his experience have been at odds more than once. But he’s never seen anything like this.

Nothing on earth could have prepared him for the experience of watching a man come back to life.

“All right there, Roland?”

Entranto doesn’t need to turn around to know that there’s only one person on this base who can get away with calling him by his first name.

“Dr. Swallow. Hope this isn’t a bad time.”

“Pretty quiet right now, actually,” the doctor tells him, her thick, auburn ponytail swinging as she steps up to a large LCD screen displaying half a dozen readouts. 

Though Dr. Emily Swallow was working at the LifeSys Foundation, a private biomedical think tank in California, she dropped everything when Entranto’s summons came and caught the chartered flight waiting for her at the airport. She touched down in Texas within hours of the tremors rocking Entranto’s convoy. Like him, the doctor knew what was at stake.

“Any changes?”

She answers as if it’s not already protocol for her to notify Entranto immediately if anything noteworthy happens. “Nothing since he went down a few hours ago.”

“Any significant damage?”

Dr. Swallow shakes her head. “We kept him isolated this time–no one in the room. He hit the glass a few times, but there was no damage. Good thing you built it strong.”

Entranto’s steps carry him to the window–six by four feet of reinforced glass, thicker than the standard bulletproof glass–that looks into the next room. Also reinforced, the small room holds little more than a hospital bed and a padded chair, a toilet and sink built into the wall behind a folding privacy screen.

Not exactly deluxe accommodations down here.

In the window, he watches Dr. Swallow step up behind his own reflection, the top of her head barely reaching the height of his chin. The bright white of her lab coat contrasts with the gray uniform fatigues he’s wearing. 

“I know you didn’t come here to watch him sleep, Roland. And you didn’t come to see me or you would’ve brought some decent coffee.”

“I’m concerned, that’s all,” admits Entranto. “He’s not making the kind of progress I was hoping for.”

“There’s not exactly a blueprint for this kind of thing. Nothing like this has ever been attempted,” she says, wonder blending with frustration in her voice, “so we can’t expect it to go one way or another.”

Entranto looks through the ballistic glass, his gaze drawn to the bed and the subject sleeping on top of the blanket.

“I thought he’d be stable by now.”

“Soon,” the doctor says. “The surges and blackouts are getting less and less frequent. We need to stay positive.”

Entranto huffs. “Now you sound like the Colonel. He said the same thing before he took off earlier.”

“He and I see things the same way.”

Hearing that gives him pause. “He told you where he was going?”

Dr. Swallow shrugs. Like Entranto, she can’t help staring at the figure on the bed. Despite the layers of glass between them and the subject, the steel reinforcing the walls, and the squad stationed in the fort above them, they know the risks.

“It’s not a terrible plan. I don’t think the Colonel felt he had a choice. Nor do I, for that matter.”

Entranto disagrees but decides against saying it out loud. He’d been well briefed on the doctor’s history with the subject, after all, and he’s not a callous man. He likes the doctor; he’s willing to give her a little more leeway than the other specialists he brought in after the meteorite hit.

“I just want to know that we're doing the right thing,” he finally says. “Going out there after the meteorite hit, finding the impact and seeing what it had done would have been enough to shake a stronger man than me, I’ll tell you that much, Doctor. There’s a big part of me that wishes we could have left him there. He deserved peace.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” Dr. Swallow insists calmly. “We didn’t bring that meteorite down–if we hadn’t recovered him, someone else would have.”

She has a point. Entranto knows the U.S. military wasn’t the only party keeping tabs on a lonely little gravesite in the middle of Texas. Though, its possible they’ve been the most vigilant.

“All due respect, Doctor, I was raised Catholic. This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen. Now that it has, what comes next?”

“It’s a new age, Roland,” she says, turning away to recheck her monitors, but he can see that she’s smiling. “We have no idea what comes next.”


	2. Chapter 2

  
**CHAPTER TWO**

The jet has barely climbed past ten thousand feet before Jared ends the silent stalemate.

“Start talking,” he says over the sound of the Gulfstream’s turbofan engines. “If I don’t like what I hear, nothing’s gonna stop me from forcing the pilots to turn back to Vancouver.”

Across from Jared, in the narrow cabin of the military’s well-appointed VIP transport jet, Army Colonel Tahmoh Penikett is grinning. 

He hasn’t changed much since the last time Jared saw him, minus a few extra lines in the corner of his kind, blue eyes. His light brown hair is trimmed short and he’s freshly shaved, leaving the sharp cut of his jaw smooth. Of course, when Jared saw Tahmoh last, he’d been recovering from the same kind of bruises, fractures, and scrapes that left Jared in the hospital for weeks.

Tahmoh has foregone his army fatigues in favor of jeans and a black shirt under an olive jacket, but his rank comes through in his posture and confident bearing. This is a man used to giving orders, not taking them. Not that Jared gives a damn about any of that. He’s known Tahmoh too long to act deferential.

“Did I already tell you how good it is to see you again, Jared?”

“I’m fucking serious, Tahmoh,” Jared snaps. His tone does nothing to wipe the easy smile off the colonel’s face. “I’m only here because of what you said back at my apartment.”

With a wave, Tahmoh sends the young Air Force flight attendant to the back of the cabin where he quietly slides a privacy door shut. With the pilots forward in the cockpit and the attendant in the rear with the flight engineer Jared spied when he came on board, he and Tahmoh are as good as alone.

“You said this had something to do with _Jensen_.”

Jared struggles with the name, realizing it’s the first time he’s said it out loud in more than a year. The sound of it on his tongue hits him in the chest like a sledgehammer, and he’s forced to take a deep breath before he can even look over at Tahmoh.

“You okay?”

With one glance, Jared tells Tahmoh that, no, he’s not okay, but Tahmoh better get talking regardless.

“It started a week ago,” Tahmoh explains. “An army unit stationed at Fort Jasper picked up the trail of a meteorite that entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Nothing out of the ordinary, not really, except this one was large enough that it didn’t simply burn up. They monitored the object until it made impact.” Tahmoh’s grin gets even bigger. “That’s when things really started to get interesting.”

“I don’t understand. What does a meteorite have to do with why I’m sitting here?”

Instead of responding, Tahmoh reaches into his bag and pulls out a silver tablet. It’s sleeker than any iPad Jared has ever seen, and Sterling always makes sure to have the latest tech gadgets for himself and the institute.

A few taps on the screen and Tahmoh hands the tablet across to Jared.

It’s a satellite image, enough of the terrain and roadways marked so that Jared knows he’s looking at an extremely familiar part of Texas.

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Because that’s where the object made impact.”

Jared stares at the flashing red dot in the middle of the screen, the location only a few thousand yards away from a green triangle that marks the final resting place of Jensen Ross Ackles.

He doesn’t need the satellite image to visualize every inch of that site; he walks it often enough in his dreams. Fifteen acres set more than half an hour’s drive from the nearest town, a small stream cutting across the property providing nourishment for thin, leafy trees. The slope of a hill facing west where the last warmth of the day lingers before the sun drops below the horizon.

Three years ago, Jared buried his husband on that hill. And now ...

“You’re saying the Army’s been keeping tabs on his _grave_? This entire time?” Jared sputters.

“Did you honestly expect us to leave it unmonitored?” Tahmoh asks. “We weren’t the only ones who knew what Jensen was–what kind of abilities he possessed. We had to be cautious.”

Jared’s muscles feel like tight coils ready to spring. If the plane were any larger, he’d be up and pacing to dispel this burst of nervous energy.

“But why bother?”

“Think of it as perpetual care and protection,” Tahmoh tells him. “It was in the Army’s best interest to make sure the site–”

“His _grave_.”

“–wasn’t disturbed.”

Tahmoh’s entire explanation leaves Jared feeling like the pilots are flying the jet in loops. He doesn’t know which way is up, revelations messing with his equilibrium, and yet there’s something missing from the colonel’s rundown.

“None of that explains what I’m doing here,” he points out. “Unless...did something happen to his grave?”

The mental picture that forms at even the thought of some random space junk desecrating Jensen’s grave...well, Jared knows it’s one that will stick with him.

“Not like that,” Tahmoh reassures. “The grave is still there.”

“Tahmoh.”

Jared fills the word with all the frustration, pain, and anger he can gather. Considering the circumstances, it’s a massive amount, and Tahmoh’s never been a cruel man. He’s one of the few people Jared still considers a friend. Doesn’t mean Jared likes him much right now.

Tahmoh isn’t deaf to his plea. Leaning forward, he drops his voice and says, “A team was sent out to the impact site. As the convoy got close, the vehicles were hit with something like an earthquake. Tremors under the road. But by the time they reached the hill–Site J-4, the Army calls it–the tremors had stopped.”

“What did they find?” Jared asks, barely able to breathe.

Tahmoh pauses to search Jared’s gaze.

“You’ve got to understand, this is all uncharted territory. The team, well, they’d never seen anything like it. The impact _changed_ the earth around it. Not only that, but there was something in the meteorite–an element that, before last week, had only been found once before in the entirety of scientific history.”

_Jensen_.

Jared knows this part of the story, connecting the dots before Tahmoh says it out loud.

“An alien element, Jared. The same one they discovered in Jensen’s blood when it was tested after he was discovered.”

Dropping his head into his hands, Jared tries to breathe through the sudden spike in his blood pressure. The back of his head throbs and his pulse is so fast and thready, it feels like it could disappear.

He struggles to get the words out. “I can’t–I don’t know what any of this is supposed to mean.” 

“The team went to the gravesite, Jared,” Tahmoh says, gentle as if he senses how close Jared is to shattering. “They found where you buried Jensen.”

Either the plane is diving sharply, or Jared is about to crash. In front of him, Tahmoh comes in and out of focus, his vision blurry around the edges.

“Did they see his body?”

“He was standing there, Jared. Jensen was goddamn _waiting_ for them.”

“Sir, we just received a call from the colonel.”

“What did he have to say, Jimenez?”

The corporal steps further into Entranto’s office–the one above ground. She sounds more awake than the staff sergeant feels. Out of the entire team, Jimenez is holding up better than most.

“He has Mr. Padalecki with him, sir, and they’ll be touching down in approximately two hours.”

Penikett wants to go ahead with his crazy plan, then. Entranto shakes his head, ruing the fact that the man outranks him. On the other hand, no one in their unit, or the entire goddamn Army for that matter, knows Jensen Ackles better than the colonel does.

“Make sure transport is waiting at the airport. I don’t want them delayed. Did he say anything else?”

“Only that he wants to proceed as planned, sir. He thinks Mr. Padalecki is willing.”

Entranto scowls at the corporal. “He thinks? I thought he was supposed to fill the guy in on what happened.”

Jimenez nods. “He did, sir, but I believe Mr. Padalecki fainted.”

_Shit_. That’s not what Entranto wanted to hear. He dismisses Jimenez so she can do something more productive than watching her commanding officer have a coronary.

He looks down at the thick, highly classified folder on his desk. So classified that only this paper copy exists, no digital trail for advantageous hackers to follow.

_Jensen Ross Ackles. Codename_ : Reactor.

Discovered unconscious fifteen years ago in a bizarre, stone structure by a covert military unit overseas, Reactor was brought back to the U.S. and kept in a secure location. When he woke up, he had no memory of his past or where he came from–nothing beyond his first name. _Jensen._ It wasn’t long before his unique abilities were revealed, and Jensen became an asset working with the same black-ops unit that found him. He was sent on missions around the world, the details of which not even Entranto has access to.

Then, eleven years ago, Jensen escaped from the division holding him. The unit lost track of him until he resurfaced in Texas nearly six months later.

Entranto never thought his military career would land him here, overseeing a unit tasked with the protection of an asset like Reactor. Up until last week, that meant monitoring a grave in the middle of Texas and keeping any interested parties, friendly or otherwise, from interfering.

These days, he’s hearing things that make his head spin. He’d done his due diligence when he got this assignment, but that was nothing compared to the scientific jargon coming across his desk this week. _Alien element. Dormant state. Self-induced coma. Regenerative properties._

It feels like he’s living in a sci-fi movie. The consultants brought in to manage and study the situation, while highly recommended and capable, are wearing his patience thin. Right now he’s got a grumpy geologist and an overly enthusiastic cosmologist competing to see which one will annoy him to death first, a doctor with secrets way above his pay grade, and there’s a damn _superhero_ down in his bunker.

Entranto debates heading down and checking in with Dr. Swallow again, but the live camera feed from the med lab shows that Ackles is still out–all part of the regenerative process, apparently, according to the doctor. 

All they have right now are guesses. 

He heads for the control room instead. If Penikett plans on throwing Padalecki into the thick of it as soon as he gets here, Entranto needs to be ready. The whole damn unit needs to be ready, because there’s no way this out-of-the-ordinary reunion goes smoothly.

Regardless of what the Colonel is telling him, Padalecki has no idea what he’s walking in to.

When Jared comes to, he’s still inside the plane. Fortunately for his stomach they’re on the ground. It’s dark outside the window, only the thinnest strip of blue on the horizon telling him that dawn is close.

“Where are we?” he mutters.

“Private airstrip just west of Fort Jasper,” Tahmoh says, still in the seat opposite Jared. “Figured you’d want to be conscious before we loaded up in the transport vehicle.”

“How considerate,” Jared grumbles, his body feeling like it’s operating at thirty percent of full power. Tahmoh, on the other hand, appears as if he used Jared’s unconsciousness to squeeze in a power nap.

Jared can’t believe he fainted. It’s been over a decade and, back then, Jensen was there to help him when he–

_Jensen._

“Oh my God.”

“Whoa, Jared. Not so fast.”

Tahmoh supports Jared when he tries to stand, the combination of air travel and a fainting spell leaving him weak in the knees.

“Get me off this plane.”

“Sure you’re okay?” Tahmoh asks. He doesn’t press when there’s no response, making sure Jared deplanes without further incident.

Three black SUVs are waiting further up the tarmac. Tahmoh directs Jared to the middle vehicle and follows him into the backseat. As the convoy pulls away, the steady noise of the vehicle’s engine helps Jared focus.

He never expected to set foot in Texas again this soon. It was still his home; Jared left his heart on that hillside years ago, and there was a part of him that realized if he went back to Jensen’s grave too soon, he might lie down and never leave.

“I fainted once before, you know.” The memory floats past Jared’s lips with barely any effort. “It was back in grad school, when I’d only known Jensen for a few months. He was working for a local moving company–hired muscle, you know–and I’d gone to pick him up at their warehouse. Something happened with one of the forklifts, a malfunction maybe, I can’t really remember. I would have been crushed to death if it wasn’t for Jensen holding up the entire packed crate on his own before it could fall. And his eyes were glowing,” he adds, that particular detail so clear in his mind. “You know what I’m talking about.”

Tahmoh nods, but doesn’t interrupt. 

“I don’t even know why I fainted. I’d known for a while that there was something different about Jensen. Something incredibly special. Maybe that was it. Or maybe it was because he risked exposing his secret to save me, and I wasn’t used to having anyone care so much.”

“He would have done anything for you,” Tahmoh whispers and, for the briefest of moments, he’s no longer a colonel. Jared sees the brave man who helped Jared and Jensen when he didn’t have to, who chose to let Jensen live the life he wanted instead of following orders to track and retrieve the military’s asset. The man who watched with tears in his eyes as Jared said goodbye to the only man he’s ever loved.

“Anything except choose to stay.”

“Jared, that’s not what happened.”

“He’s dead, Tahmoh. I felt him go. I–I was holding him when it happened.” Jared fights to keep from choking up. “And now you’re trying to tell me I was wrong, that I buried my best friend, and he was still–still…”

“I was there, too,” Tahmoh reminds him. “I thought the same thing. We all did. He was gone.”

“Then how is this possible?!”

Silence follows in the wake of Jared’s outburst. Tahmoh gives him a few minutes to center himself, turning to their driver and saying something that’s too muffled for Jared to hear. Perhaps not-so-subtly reminding him to ignore everything he’s heard on the drive so far.

Besides the whiskey in his apartment and a bottle of water on the jet before he fainted, Jared hasn’t put anything in his stomach since the granola bar that served as lunch at the Institute the day before. With no food or sleep (unless losing consciousness counted), it’s no wonder he’s running on empty.

He drifts, his eyelids heavy but unwilling to fall shut, letting himself absorb the mixed emotions of being back in Texas, until Tahmoh starts talking again.

“All we have are theories,” Tahmoh explains as their vehicle makes a wide right turn, its tires jostling over slightly rougher road. 

“Whose theories?”

“We needed experts: a geologist to study the impact and the tremors, a special type of chemist to tell us more about the meteorite, and a doctor for anything that arose concerning Jensen’s condition.”

Another hesitation. 

Jared frowns. “What do you mean, his _condition_? Is there something wrong with Jensen?”

“No! It’s just that Dr. Swallow was working on–”

“Emily?” Jared cuts in. “She’s there? Right now?”

“We needed someone familiar with Jensen’s particular physiology.” Tahmoh’s gaze turns pleading. “She knows him, Jared, and he knew her. I thought it was the right call to make. You realize I couldn’t drag just any civilian into this. I needed people I could trust.”

But the colonel is missing the point entirely.

“You’re saying Emily’s been there since you found Jensen, but you only came to me a few hours ago?”

The hits just keep on coming.

Realizing he’s stepped into some shit, Tahmoh winces. If Jared lashes out, it would be no less than Tahmoh deserves, but it would drain the little energy he has left. And, if Tahmoh’s crazy story is true, Jared’s going to need that to deal with what’s ahead.

“I know you don’t want to hear it,” Tahmoh says, ignoring Jared’s grunt of acknowledgement, “but we didn’t know how this was going to turn out. You think any of us were prepared for this, Jared?”

Whether from exhaustion or the knowledge that nothing Tahmoh could say would placate Jared, he lets it go. Jared wants to be on solid ground, and he’s not just thinking about the last five and a half hours in moving vehicles. Everything has shifted; like the convoy Tahmoh mentioned, Jared’s been hit with a series of tremors, and there’s no telling whether the main quake is behind him or still yet to come. All he can do is try to hold on the next time the earth moves.

From the outside, Fort Jasper is nothing more than a compound made up of squat brick buildings and vehicle bays that appear dull beneath the light of a Texas sunrise. As their convoy passes through the heavily guarded gate, Jared sees a flat space larger than several football fields put together, which holds antennas, satellite dishes, and other transmission equipment inside a tall security fence. Military police are stationed around the fence, as well as watching from raised lookouts.

 _Keeping tabs on things_. Jared can see why surveillance serves at the base’s primary directive.

Their driver pulls up to the largest building where four more armed MPs guard the entrance.

“Seems like a lot of security for a base like this,” Jared mutters. “Something you’re not telling me?”

Tahmoh shakes his head. “Just a precaution, Jared. We’ve kept a tight lid on this whole thing. Only four civilians were deemed ‘need to know’, and the Army wants to keep the word from spreading.”

“They’re here to keep people from talking?”

“More to keep the base secure if the public does find out,” Tahmoh clarifies. “You remember what it was like right before New Orleans. If people knew Reactor was here–God, if anyone knew he was even alive–there’s no telling what kind of media storm we’d have to weather.”

Jared curses under his breath. “This is fucking insane.”

The inner workings of Fort Jasper are much more impressive than the exterior. Screens on most of the walls, a 3-D tabletop display in one of the large conference rooms. It’s like something out of a futuristic television show, men and women with communication headsets monitoring hundreds, if not thousands, of streams of data at their workstations. From where he’s standing, Jared can see NASA feeds, charts of seismic activity, and satellite images of more than one location in Central Texas.

Plus one guy searching for motorcycle parts on eBay while he thinks no one’s watching.

“This way, Jared.”

He and Tahmoh move through the building followed by two of the MPs who were guarding the front door. One of them uses an access card to swipe them into a wide corridor where a sturdily built man in fatigues is waiting. The officer is bald, but it’s either a choice or premature, as his olive-toned skin isn’t as weathered as Jared would expect. His eyes are dark and searching, clearly a man who wants to know what’s going on around him at all times.

“Jared, this is Staff Sergeant Roland Entranto. He’s in charge here at Fort Jasper.”

Despite Tahmoh’s polite introduction, the staff sergeant doesn’t waste time on pleasantries. He shakes Jared’s hand with a grip that’s more than firm; it’s testing.

“Mr. Padalecki, I hope you understand that anything you see here is confidential. Colonel Penikett may have vouched for you, but this base is under my command.”

“I understand that.” Jared is wary of the way he’s being scrutinized. “But I don’t need Tahmoh to vouch for me. I have a right to be here.”

Tahmoh steps closer. “Jared.”

“It’s fine, Colonel,” Entranto cuts in. “These are highly unusual circumstances. I have to consider the security of the base, first and foremost.”

Though Jared’s guard is raised, he considers Entranto’s point. No doubt the last week has been busier than usual around here.

“I get it,” Jared says, exhausted from the emotional whiplash, “and I’m sorry. I just really need to see him, you know? I still don’t feel like any of this is real.”

Jared doesn’t want to pinch himself in case this really is just a dream and he’ll wake up in a cold, lonely apartment in Vancouver with tears in his eyes and one hell of a hangover.

“I’m afraid seeing the subject will have to wait,” Entranto tells them.

Tahmoh steps forward, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

Before Tahmoh can get any further, the staff sergeant dismisses the two MPs. When the three of them are alone, Entranto takes a deep breath and sighs. Only then does Jared see the signs of fatigue in him: the slight slump to his broad shoulders, the tightness at the corners of his eyes. It must’ve been a hell of a week for him, too.

That doesn’t mean Jared likes what he heard.

“What did you mean, I have to wait?”

Tahmoh adds, “We agreed that Jared could see him when he arrived.”

Entranto appears to debate silently with himself before pointing down the hall to their right.

“I think it’s best if you follow me.”

Jared looks at Tahmoh for a reaction, hoping the colonel will order Entranto to take them to Jensen. To the left, Jared sees a wide metal door that looks a lot like a freight elevator, but Entranto directs them to the right. A few turns later, they’re stepping back out into the Texas morning. When Jared turns around, he sees another MP posted outside that door, too.

Entranto walks them to another building fifty yards away, this one secured by an RFID reader that Entranto disengages with his I.D. badge. The space they step into isn’t at all like the thrumming ops center they’d passed through. Jared compares it to a dorm, albeit a very small and utilitarian one.

“Guest quarters,” Entranto informs them without being asked. “This way.”

Jared’s heart wants to pound out of his chest. Jensen could be around the next corner, standing there and smiling the way he used to when Jared came home. A flash of green eyes and he’d be next to Jared, so close they would only need to lean in a few inches before their lips touched.

Clearly, Jared is delirious because those are not the kind of thoughts he should be having while standing between an Army colonel and a staff sergeant. He realizes he’s been holding his breath for more than half a minute. When Jared exhales, it’s shaky. Tahmoh looks over and gives him a nod that’s meant to be reassuring.

Entranto stops and points to an unmarked door.

“In here please, Mr. Padalecki, Colonel.”

As soon as Tahmoh opens the door, he moves aside and lets Jared walk in ahead of him.

Two pairs of eyes turn his way, neither the otherworldly green he was desperate to see.

“I didn’t faint again, did I?”

Jared’s mumble sounds pathetic even to his own ears. He’s sitting down on what feels like a rigid, uncomfortable couch.

“No, but it was a close call.”

Jared opens his eyes at the familiar, pleasant voice. “Hey, Em.”

Dr. Emily Swallow is staring back at him with a mix of amusement and exasperation. It’s been years since they last saw each other, but the sight of her has an immediate calming effect on Jared. 

He didn’t meet Emily until he and Jensen had been together for a few years. After hearing about her history with Jensen, Jared couldn’t help but trust her the same way Jensen did. Emily had been one of the few civilians who consulted on Jensen’s extraordinary case when he was brought back to the U.S. As a young, up-and-coming doctor specializing in unique physiologies, Emily saw Jensen several times while he worked for the classified military unit, and she was the first person he tracked down after he escaped.

Jared and Jensen stayed in contact with her as she continued her research at private labs across the country. No matter where she was living at the time, she always found time to help them on the rare occasions Jensen was injured, or provide a professional opinion on his wide range of abilities.

It’s fitting that she’s here now; there’s no one who knows Jensen better medically than Emily Swallow.

“You closed your eyes and started to sway,” she says, “so we thought we’d get you off your feet before you really did faint. Sounds like it wouldn’t be the first time today, either.”

“Is he going to be okay?”

Jared turns to see Tahmoh hovering on the other side of the minimally furnished common area, arms crossed over his chest. Entranto stands at ease further back, his arms behind his back and his expression neutral.

Emily nods. Like everyone Jared’s encountered so far, she seems to be running on caffeine and adrenaline instead of sleep. Still, her wide smile reminds Jared of easier days when she was always willing to help Jared and Jensen out of a scrape.

“I’m guessing it’s been a while since you’ve slept or eaten anything, right? You need food before you do anything else.”

“It’s not important,” Jared says, his impatience at odds with his body’s demands.

“It is if you want to stand on your own two feet sometime today,” Emily teases, though Jared can hear the threat hidden in her words. There was a reason she was able to put up with Jensen, after all. “I don’t think Tahmoh and Roland want to be stuck hauling you around.”

Jared hears Tahmoh’s muffled chuckle.

“You need rest,” she adds.

Then, a voice Jared doesn’t recognize adds, “We could all use a break, love.”

Hearing traces of an Irish accent, Jared cranes his neck and sees another man sitting at a large table that’s covered in folders, documents (many redacted, if the thick black lines are any indication), and two open laptops. He’s handsome in a scruffy, rugged sort of way–a man who’s not fussy about creature comforts. Short brown hair and pond green eyes Jared vaguely recalls seeing when he entered the room.

“They’ve been working us ‘round the clock since we got here.”

Emily rolls her eyes while Tahmoh makes introductions. 

“Jared, this is Adam Fergus. He’s the geologist we brought in to consult on all the seismic activity caused by the impact.”

“Hell of a lot more exciting than the projects I’m usually called in for.” Adam grins. “Pays better, too.”

Jared frowns. “I thought the tremors stopped?”

“That information isn’t important right now,” Entranto cuts in before either Tahmoh or Adam can respond, making Jared think that the opposite is probably true.

Adam groans. Clearly, he’s heard that line before.

“Dr. Swallow and Dr. Fergus will bring you up to speed as much as they can, Mr. Padalecki. I’ll let you know when you can see the subject.”

That springs Jared into motion. He stands and faces Entranto on legs that feel like spaghetti.

“I want to see him now,” he demands, on the verge of being physically sick.

Tahmoh presses on Jared’s behalf, but the staff sergeant remains firm. “All due respect, sir, this is my base and I’m doing what’s best for the objective. That’s why you assigned me to this command.”

It hits Jared, then, that Tahmoh wasn’t just running an errand for the Army when he showed up in Vancouver. It’s entirely possible he’s overseen this operation for a lot longer than he let on.

“I don’t understand,” Jared says. “Why can’t I see Jensen?”

“The subject is still out.” Entranto looks to Emily for confirmation. She nods. “I’ll grant you some leeway, Mr. Padalecki, but I won’t allow you to disturb the subject until he’s conscious again. I’m sure everyone here would agree with me.”

Jared fumes every time Jensen is referred to as a _subject_.

“Best leave it, mate,” Adam says calmly, with a smile that’s meant to be reassuring and friendly. “It’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

When no further arguments come on Jared’s behalf, he wonders what exactly these people have seen if they won’t risk waking Jensen up. Jared experiences a stab of something cold and sharp; he refuses to call it fear.

“I suggest you rest and pull yourself together, Mr. Padalecki,” Entranto says, turning towards the door. “Sir, if I could have a word?”

Tahmoh is the superior officer–he ought to be able to force Entranto’s hand–yet Jared watches him leave with the staff sergeant. As soon as the door closes, Jared rounds on the other two people in the room. Adam has moved into the kitchenette while Emily continues to watch Jared carefully.

“Why do I get the feeling they aren’t telling me everything?”

“‘Cause they’re not.” Adam pulls a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, along with a few slices of individually wrapped cheese and precooked bacon, and sets it on the counter next to a bag of sliced bread. “This place holds more secrets than a priest.”

“Make one of those egg sandwiches for Jared, too,” Emily tells him.

“Why should I?”

Emily puts on a smile that’s full of teeth and false charm. “Because you’re already cooking and, if you don’t, I’m going to tranquilize you with some of the good shit they stock down in the bunker and give Jared your sandwich.” 

Adam grumbles under his breath, but they both watch him taking out extra bread and cheese. Nice to know that some things haven’t changed–even Jensen knew better than to give Emily Swallow any crap. Her professional, no-nonsense attitude was what endeared Jensen, and later Jared, to her in the first place.

While Adam fries eggs for their sandwiches, Jared sits back down on the couch across from Emily.

“The sergeant’s not a bad guy,” she says, though Jared’s scowl remains in place. “I think he’s just protective.”

“Of Jensen?”

“Of this entire base.”

“I don’t really care about his base. I want to know what he’s not telling me.”

“They keep a lot from us, too. I don’t work in the operations center tracking seismic activity, but Adam does. Osric mainly keeps to the containment areas, and sometimes Adam joins him, but I–”

Jared perks up at the new name. “Osric?”

“Osric Chau. He’s a chemical cosmologist.”

“I thought it was ‘cosmochemist,’” Adam jumps in. “Either way, all that freak cares about is the damn meteorite. Speaking of, where the bloody hell is he?”

Emily glances at her watch. “He’s probably still sleeping.”

“Or he never went to bed. He was still down in containment when I finally called it a night.”

Adam drops a plate on Jared’s lap, and when he makes eye contact with the melting cheese peeking out from between the fried egg and the reheated bacon, his stomach gives a lurch. He’s almost too nauseated to eat, but Emily might decide to force feed him if he doesn’t, which wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

“Might be a good thing he’s not here,” Adam continues. “He goes a bit mad over his discoveries.”

Emily chuckles. “You’d be excited, too, if you got to work on something that advanced your field of study by a few decades.”

Adam shrugs and sits down at the table with his own sandwich. Jared takes small bites until the hunger overwhelms him and he stops himself from inhaling the rest. When he’s finished, Emily takes his empty plate and sets it back on the counter. 

“You’ll feel a little better after that, I promise.” She brings Jared a large bottle of water from the fridge on her way back and stares at him until he drinks at least a quarter of it. Her no-nonsense brand of nurturing is familiar and comforting.

“What the hell’s going on here, Em? You have no idea what the last twelve hours have been like for me. Tahmoh showing up at my place in Vancouver, dragging me onto a plane and insisting Jensen is alive.”

“It’s true, Jared. Even I had a hard time believing it when they contacted me, but then I saw him…” 

Jared has to fight back a surge of jealousy. It’s not fair that Emily, along with Adam and an entire base full of strangers, knew about Jensen’s return a week before Jared found out.

They were fucking married; Jared should have been told before anyone else.

Something Emily said to Adam hits Jared. “You mentioned a bunker. Is he being held prisoner?”

“No, nothing like that!” Emily is quick to assure him. “It’s just that if people found out he was alive again, this place would be overrun. Keeping him in the bunker is the safest option for everyone. It’s basically a giant lab underground, Jared, nothing like what you’re thinking. Adam, Osric, and I all work down there.”

“Then why doesn’t Entranto want me to see Jensen?”

Emily leans back as she considers the question. 

“No one’s ever come back from the dead before. We don’t know what’s normal and what’s not. Even if Jensen were human, there’s no roadmap.”

Jared stares at her, trying to piece the words together into any sort of picture and failing.

Possibly sensing his struggle, she adds, “He hasn’t spoken yet. Not to me, not to anyone. He lets me get close to him, maybe it’s because he recognizes me from before, but I’m not sure. Sometimes he’s active to the point that our equipment can’t keep up with him, and sometimes, like now, he crashes so hard we can’t wake him up.”

Her description sounds off, nothing like the way Jared remembers Jensen (and he remembers everything). When he wasn’t Reactor, Jensen was so open, so willing to share himself with Jared. He didn’t hide parts of himself, never kept secrets even when Jared was threatened.

Jared wonders if Jensen’s silence now means that he can’t speak, or that he _won’t_.

“Osric’s been working on a few theories that–”

Jared interrupts her with a massive yawn. He’s about to apologize and insist she continue, but it’s followed by another yawn that leaves him with heavy eyelids.

“Seriously, Jared. You’re exhausted.” With a gentle hand, Emily pushes him over onto his side. He goes easily, barely noticing when she grabs a second pillow from the other end of the couch and adds it to the one under his head. “Close your eyes and rest before you pass out again. I’ll talk to Roland and Tahmoh. Everything will be better when you wake up, I promise.”

He wants to tell her that all he needs is Jensen, but he’s out before the words make it onto his tongue.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

_“Jared, you need to go.”_

_It’s the fear in Tahmoh’s voice that finally breaks through the fog in Jared’s mind._

_“We don’t have much time.” Tahmoh pushes Jared along the sterile corridor, nondescript doors on either side. “We can’t leave him here. There’s no telling what they’ll do.”_

_Another wave of anguish threatens to drag Jared under, but the emotion in Tahmoh’s voice gives him a point to focus on. There’s a job to be done, and Jared can’t stop and give in to the pain until it’s finished._

_“I switched the identification papers with another victim. They think Jensen’s body is still downstairs, but it’s being taken for transport right now. This is your chance Jared, you’ve got to take that van.”_

_“Where can I go, Tahmoh? I can’t…”_

_Feels like it’s been days since Jared’s taken a real breath. In reality, it’s been less than eighteen hours since Jared was forcibly separated from his husband’s body. His arms and legs ache; his heart has been reduced to ashes._

_Tahmoh stops Jared and pulls him close, his big hands wrapping firmly around Jared’s back. Tahmoh is shaking. Maybe they both are. Jared’s hands wrap around Tahmoh’s forearms; he clings to his friend and tries to find the strength to keep going._

_“You take him home, Jared.”_

Jared is dragged from the swirling emotion of his dream and woken by the distinctly prickling sensation of being watched. There’s a brief flash of optimism that it might be Jensen, but it dissolves just as quickly.

His dream, pieced together from buried memories of the last time he stepped foot in a military installation, leaves him feeling hollow and desperate. Instead of thinking about that, Jared turns his attention to the tingling awareness that woke him.

“I know you’re awake. You fake-sleeping while I’m in the room is totally creepier than me watching you while you were sleeping.”

Jared groans when he tries to shift on the too-small sofa, cracking his eyes and seeing a man a few years younger than himself sitting at the near end of the table. Black hair, dark eyes, a wide nose over a one-sided smirk, and the barest hint of scruff around the bottom of his chin.

“How d’you figure?”

The smirk expands to a smile. “This is the only common area we’ve been allowed to use, so I don’t really have a choice but to sit here while you sleep. You didn’t have to pretend to be asleep so you could figure out what I was doing.”

It’s a struggle for Jared to sit up, but it’s a relief when he’s upright. His stomach is settled for the moment, his brain can finally function in straight lines, and the headache he’d been holding at bay seems to have receded. 

“You must be Osric,” he says, finger combing his hair away from his face and ignoring how greasy the strands feel. He’d only packed the essentials when Tahmoh told him there was a jet waiting. Fortunately, a quick glance around the common room reveals his bag sitting by the door. Someone must have carried it in from the vehicle while he was out.

“Hope you’ve heard good things, but knowing Adam, probably not.”

“What I heard is that you were studying the meteorite. I’m–”

Osric laughs. “You’re Jared. Trust me, it’s kind of hard to _not_ know who you are.”

Jared grimaces. “Hope _you’ve_ heard good things.”

That makes the guy laugh even harder. In red, skinny-fit denim jeans and a T-shirt bearing some comic book logo Jared has no hope of identifying, Osric looks more like a potential cosplayer than a chemical cosmologist, but Jared learned long ago not to be fooled by appearances.

Taking slow steps across the room and retrieving his bag, Jared’s relieved to see an actual change of clothes and toiletries. He asks a still chuckling Osric if there’s a bathroom close by, grateful when he directs Jared to the facilities.

Jared scrubs his face with soap, brushing his teeth and reapplying deodorant. There’s not much he can do about his uneven beard without a razor, or the way his hair looks with the Texas humidity. Changing his grey button-down that’s been wrinkled beyond hope for a fresh white T-shirt and blue-checked overshirt, he feels better than he has since this odyssey began. Physically, anyway.

“Is Emily around?” he asks Osric when he comes back out. From the angle of the sun coming through the metal blinds across the pair of square windows, it’s definitely late afternoon, meaning he’s been asleep for far too long.

“You mean Dr. Swallow? She might be in the med lab,” Osric says, “or she could be going over results with the colonel.”

“Colonel Penikett came back in here?”

“I saw him as I was coming back up here from the bunker. He mentioned you were sleeping and that I should try not to wake you up.”

Jared finishes drinking the water Emily gave him earlier and sighs. “You’re allowed down in the bunker, too?”

“Kind of hard to study the meteorite if I wasn’t,” Osric points out. “I did hear that Entranto wasn’t letting you down there yet. Which seems kinda weird to me, you know? I mean, the guy was your boyfriend, right?”

“My husband.”

“Damn.” Osric leans back in his chair. “Sorry. Now I think it’s even weirder that you haven’t gone down there.”

“You know who Reactor is, who I am–”

“Oh yeah, Adam and I were read in when we were hired,” Osric says. “Would have been tough to work around if they didn’t tell us anything. I mean, I knew all about Reactor before I got here. Potential evidence of alien life–kind of a big deal in my field, you know?”

Osric seems more open than the others, so Jared takes his chance. 

“Emily and the others mentioned Jensen was behaving kind of strangely.” Despite being exhausted at the time, he remembers Emily saying something about Osric and his theories. “And that you might have some kind of idea about why that is.”

“Wow, guess you really did hear good things about me!”

Osric moves quickly to take a seat opposite Jared. Up close, he’s not as skinny as Jared first thought. Lean muscle gives him enough definition to fill out the red T-shirt he’s wearing, as if he spends equal time bench pressing meteorites as he does studying them.

“This meteorite is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been able to study samples from most of the space debris that didn’t burn up in the atmosphere in the last two hundred years. When I got here, they gave me access to the samples taken when Jensen was first uncovered, and this meteorite has the same unusual chemical structure. Don’t even get me started on Acklinium. I mean…”

He fans his fingers out from his face as if miming that his head has just exploded.

“Acklinium?”

“Well, that’s what I think it should be called,” Osric ponders out loud. “The unique element that’s not-of-this-Earth, obviously. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, I know, but considering what I saw had been etched on the structure where they originally found Jensen, I thought it was a pretty good tribute.”

Jared has seen classified photos of the etching, courtesy of Tahmoh, and Jensen had drawn them repeatedly, trying to find meaning in the lines, eventually choosing to adopt the word as his last name.

“Anyway, since this element is unique to Jensen and this meteorite, it follows that they might have the same origin. It was vital to his regeneration. From all the tests they performed when Jensen–” he drops his voice even though they’re alone, “–died, the levels were so low, they were pretty much non-existent. That didn’t seem strange back then because he was...you know.”

Jared swallows around the lump in his throat and nods for Osric to continue.

“Now though, the levels are off the charts! Definitely way higher than when he was with the Army before.”

Jared’s never heard this information. He knew Jensen was the Army’s ‘asset’ for years between his discovery and later escape, but he had no idea they’d recorded everything down to the last atomic detail. It’s invasive, he thinks, and cruel.

“You’re saying the surge in the levels of this element, that’s what’s causing him to behave oddly?”

“Have you ever met a hormonal teenager?” Osric poses the question with a tilt of his head. “It’s probably a lot like that. Jensen wouldn’t be used to levels like this in his system, not while he’s been on Earth, anyway. Once everything balances out, he should be fine.”

Jared shakes his head. “Tahmoh told me about the element while we were on the plane. I had no idea it was so important, though.”

“So important,” Osric reiterates. “It could even be the source of his powers! He was strong back then, and the levels of Acklinium in his system were low compared to what they are now. I’m pretty sure it kept his cells from breaking down over the past three years, too. I mean, just imagine the implications of that–what we could do with it! Medical breakthroughs, pharmaceutical research, space travel, _supersoldiers_.” 

The cosmologist's eyes are shining as he lists the possibilities. It’s unnerving until Osric starts to laugh at himself.

“I mean, I’m totally kidding about that last one. But all of this is like something out of a comic book, you know?”

Osric makes it sound like the man being held here at Fort Jasper is barely human, and that’s nothing like the husband Jared remembers. What if the person in their bunker doesn’t recognize Jared at all?

“You know,” Osric’s careful tone breaks into Jared’s thoughts, “you should go down and see him.”

Jared tries to read the intentions in Osric’s eyes, seeing nothing but the desire to help.

“I thought the whole thing was restricted.”

“Not if you have one of these,” Osric teases, holding up a badge like the ones Entranto and Tahmoh were using to move around the base. “I can get you over to the elevator that goes down there.”

“You’d help me? Isn’t that risky for you?”

“If we get caught, we’ll just pretend you forced me into helping you. You’re like a foot taller than me and I bruise easily. I’m guessing you don’t really care what anyone thinks about your character right now.”

Jared huffs. Apparently Osric has no trouble reading him.

“How would we get over there? I’ve only been conscious for one of the eight hours I’ve been on this base. I didn’t exactly memorize the layout.”

“I did.” Osric says it with pride. “I know all the work-arounds and blind spots. I, um, I don’t really sleep much around here. The beds are seriously terrible. I have to keep myself occupied somehow.”

Their plan, flimsy as it is, reinvigorates Jared. He figures the worst the MPs can do if they catch him is throw him back in this common room, as he doubts Tahmoh would let anything worse happen to him. Osric is more than happy using his laptop to show Jared the best way to get back into the main building (the back door through which they left) and when to do it (as the MPs rotate duty).

“I’ll be able to let you onto the elevator with my badge,” Osric points out. They’d already settled on Jared going down alone. “There’s no way to stop them from seeing the elevator being used, but they’ll assume I’m just going back down. That way you’ll have some time before they suspect something’s up.”

“I won’t need much time,” Jared swears. Once Jensen sees him, this entire nightmare will end. Entranto and his consultants will see that there’s nothing wrong with Jared being there, and he’ll be able to see, touch, _feel_. He’ll finally be able to breathe again.

Osric forces him to focus. “Best time to go is about twenty minutes from now. We shouldn’t have any trouble getting from here to the main building, since the guards at the security fence will be all the way on the other side of the compound.”

Jared can’t put into words how much it means to finally have someone helping him, so he simply says, “Thanks, Osric.”

The cosmologist grins. “Thank me when we’re not thrown in the brig for pissing off the staff sergeant. That dude scares me.”

Osric wasn’t kidding about the time he spent studying the inner workings of the base, because just a few minutes after they leave the common room, they’re standing in the back hallway of the operations building with no one the wiser. Osric moved fast, forcing Jared to keep up lest he risk being caught.

“The elevator is around that corner, at the far end of the hall,” Osric whispers.

Jared keeps his fingers crossed, recalling that the elevator wasn’t under guard when he was led past earlier. Osric moves confidently around the corner, his footsteps almost soundless. When they find the elevator unguarded, Jared breathes a sigh of relief.

Osric turns to Jared and winks. “All according to plan, man.”

Standing in front of the elevator, Osric provides some last-minute instructions. 

“Most base personnel aren’t allowed down in the labs, so you should have the place to yourself,” he says. “Reactor’s in a room off the med lab, all the way at the end of the hall, past containment.”

“I won’t need more than a few minutes.”

Osric is about to swipe his card when the static burst from a radio catches them both by surprise. Jared turns around, stomach sinking when he sees an MP coming around the corner, eyes pointed down at his cell phone, and heading straight for them.

Jared curses under his breath.

Osric grins and whispers, “Be cool, man. I’ve got this.”

When the MP glances up from his phone and sees them at the elevator, he seems equally caught off guard. He appears younger than both Jared and Osric, but Jared can’t picture Entranto allowing anyone who wasn’t fully capable to serve in this unit.

“Dr. Chau, I was told that Mr. Padalecki was to remain in the guest quarters today.”

“Really? That’s weird, because Entranto said I was supposed to take him down right away. Something about an emergency protocol?”

The last two words trigger a response.

“Emergency protocol?” the MP questions. “I haven’t heard anything. Let me just radio the staff sergeant before you–”

With a move so fast Jared wonders if his eyes are playing tricks on him, Osric spins and sweeps the MP’s legs out from under him, using the man’s shock to push him flat onto the ground. Another flash, and Osric knocks the man unconscious with an elbow to the side of the head.

Skills like that belong in a fucking action movie, not the back hallway of a military base, and not coming from a guy who looks like he’s best friends with a computer.

Osric looks up at Jared. “Um, not to be weird, but you should probably go.”

“Shit, right.”

He can only stare as Osric stands and swipes his badge before handing it to Jared. The elevator opens with a creak, earthy air pulled up from the bunker hitting Jared in the face.

“What about you?” Jared asks as he steps on. “There could be more coming.”

Osric winks. “I’ll be fine, trust me.”

Given what he’s just seen, Jared doesn’t doubt it.

“Just remember not to make any sudden moves down there,” Osric says as the doors start to close, a teasing grin on his face as he waves. “And good luck!”

From the beginning, it was impossible for Jared not to notice Jensen. The day they met in Austin, Jensen was the odd guy out, trying not to be noticed in a room full of people. Nevertheless, Jared saw him across the crowd, and he was beautiful in ways Jared never knew the word could be used.

They were drawn to one another from the start, their feelings growing deeper and more complex as Jared worked on his Master’s degree and Jensen went from job to job, trying to find something that fit. Back then, he reminded Jared of a soldier who’d recently returned from combat–chaos in his mind, yet a convincing smile on his face. Jared bore it with patience and understanding, knowing that Jensen would tell Jared his story in time. 

And then Jensen saved his life and the pieces fell into place as the two of them fell in love. Their bond went beyond romance and friendship; Jensen trusted Jared with his secrets and Jared believed in him with everything he had. When Jared graduated with his Master’s degree, Jensen finally found his calling, researching beside him in the field and trying to save the earth when Reactor wasn’t out saving the world.

Now, walking through the bunker, Jared prays that his connection to Jensen survived the meteorite impact, too.

Speaking of which…

Jared looks to his left and there is the meteorite itself behind several panes of glass and a sealed containment door.

“So that’s what started all this,” Jared mutters to himself.

He expected a large, ugly gray rock, like some of the meteorites he’s seen in museums. This one, however, is breathtaking and so very alien. Though it’s certainly big–roughly the size of a large suitcase–Jared’s never seen anything like it.

From where Jared’s standing, it looks like obsidian, only he’s never seen volcanic glass glow from deep within. There’s nothing in the room to explain the unnatural bluish-green light at the center of the meteorite, pulsing like a heartbeat and hitting each jagged facet. The color makes Jared think of the deep, dark ocean, down where the sunlight can barely penetrate the water; it’s as if he’s staring at a frozen piece of that ocean brought to the surface.

He can see why Osric is fascinated by this thing. Tahmoh once told Jared about the structure in which Jensen was first discovered. Jared wonders now if it was made from a material like this, or something even stranger.

Jared takes one last look and moves on, no time to waste.

Further down the hall, he comes to the med lab. There he finds a flaw in Osric’s plan. The lock requires a palm print as well as a badge. Jared peers through the small window in the door, gaze sweeping over medical equipment. As far as he can see, the room is empty.

Jared would give anything to have Jensen’s strength right now; he would rip these doors off their hinges.

“Let me guess, Osric had something to do with this.”

Jared spins and sees Emily stepping up behind him, hands in the pockets of her lab coat.

She shakes her head. “I knew you’d find a way down here.”

“You have to let me in,” Jared pleads. “It’ll be fine once I see him, I swear. Please, he needs me.”

Suddenly, Jared regrets losing touch with her. They spoke a handful of times in the six months after he buried Jensen. After that, a few emails went back and forth, more and more time passing between replies. If Jared knew Emily as well as he used to, he might be able to guess what she’s thinking at this very moment.

Finally, she sighs. “I told myself I wouldn’t do this, but who am I kidding?” 

Taking a badge from her pocket, she swipes it through the reader and places her palm on the screen. With a mechanical click, the door unlocks. Checking to make sure no one else is in the bunker, she ushers Jared through the door and pushes it closed.

Jared forces a smile. “How’d we both end up here, huh?”

“We’re suckers for a pretty face,” she replies.

Inside the lab, Jared is immediately drawn to a large window that dominates one side of the room. Even distorted through bulletproof glass, Jared would know his husband anywhere.

It’s been almost a day since Tahmoh told him Jensen wasn’t dead, yet the shock of actually seeing him nearly knocks Jared off his feet.

“Oh my god, this is real,” Jared whispers, the adrenaline rush causing his arms and legs to tingle.

Jensen is unconscious, as Entranto said he would be, and currently lying on his back on a modified hospital bed, his face turned away from the window. The room he’s being held in is cold and impersonal, and Jared’s heart aches when he sees the remains of what probably used to be a privacy screen mangled and shredded on the stone floor.

Jensen must have been scared; strength and power aside, coming back from the dead and being surrounded by strangers can’t be easy. In the time Jensen’s been down here, Jared wonders if anyone has shown him a shred of kindness.

Though his face is half hidden, Jensen looks the same as Jared remembers. Broad shoulders and thick biceps, muscled thighs, a lean waist. Light brown hair and pale, freckled skin Jared’s able to see above the collar of the black shirt Jensen’s wearing. Gray sweatpants cover his lower half while his feet are tucked into soft-looking slippers.

Jared had buried Jensen in his favorite clothes. A pair of jeans found at a thrift store with a hole in the back left pocket, a T-shirt Jared gave him that read _Don’t Waste Water, Shower Together!_ , and the jacket from the charcoal grey suit he’d wear whenever they were invited to one of Sterling’s functions. He wonders what happened to them–if someone kept them safe or if they were discarded when Jensen was brought here, no one understanding their significance.

_This is real_. He feels it now, and it’s overwhelming. The man who’d died trying to save Jared and tens of thousands of other people from the wrath of a powerful maniac is whole and breathing again.

Miracles were never supposed to happen to people like Jared Padalecki.

“I got as far away as I could, you know,” he says to the glass, confident that Emily is listening. “Physically and emotionally. We had dreams, Jensen and I, but when he was gone I just...I couldn’t face doing any of the things we’d talked about. Not alone.”

“You kept a part of him with you, though.”

Jared hangs his head. “Most of the time I felt so fucking empty, Em. Jensen might have saved countless other cities from being destroyed, but, for me, that was the day the world ended.”

Emily steps up to the window beside him.

“You’re still here, Jared. And now, so is he.”

Unaware that he’s even moved, Jared touches his open palm to the glass. He presses everything he feels into the cold and unforgiving surface, desperate for Jensen to know just how close he is, and that everything will be fine from now on.

He would swear it on his own life.

At that moment, a digital alarm goes off somewhere behind them. Startled, they stare at one another until Emily swears and rushes over to one of the computers where Jared watches her study the screen with narrowed eyes.

Jared takes a few steps towards her and the bank of equipment. “What is it?”

“This computer monitors his brain activity even while he’s out,” Emily says. “I don’t understand this, though. The patterns have changed, I–”

Emily goes silent, but her mouth is open. She’s frozen, looking back at Jared.

No, not at Jared. She’s looking directly over his shoulder.

He turns slowly, his heart pounding so hard, it can probably be heard over the alarm.

Jensen is awake and standing on the other side of the window, his bright green eyes fixed on Jared. The expression on his face is so unfamiliar, so _alien_ , it nearly brings Jared to tears. Then, in the space of a heartbeat, the inexplicable coldness is replaced with a look of such wonder, such hope, Jared knows without a doubt that this is his Jensen no matter what anyone tells him.

He barely hears Emily curse behind him. “Holy shit…”

Jared finds himself staring at a face he mostly recognizes. It’s the same bone structure, the same mouth and full lips, the same intensity, and yet there are a million small differences. It doesn’t seem possible, but Jensen looks even better than he did before. There’s a lethality to his perfection now, a bite to his smile, and his eyes are bright enough to burn. There’s a week’s worth of scruff around his jaw, but it only makes him appear fiercer. 

Compared to Jared’s own tired and unkempt reflection, the contrast is startling.

Without breaking his stare, Jensen raises a hand to the glass between them, pressing. Like he’s considering the window that separates them.

“You have to let me in there.”

Emily whispers, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“He’s not going to hurt me,” Jared insists.

“He might not even remember you!”

Jensen continues to watch Jared, a familiar tilt to the corner of his mouth.

“Entranto told you to be careful for a reason, Jared. You’re not the only person on this base,” Emily implores. 

Jared doesn’t think he’s capable of being careful. Not now, and certainly not where Jensen is concerned. 

Suddenly, the door to the med lab opens with a pressurized hiss. Jared turns and watches Entranto march in, followed by Tahmoh and four military police officers with sidearms holstered on their belts. 

Immediately, Jensen’s expression goes dark.

Heart beating double-time, Jared turns and puts himself between Entranto and the window. 

“My orders were clear,” the staff sergeant says. “I told you to wait, Mr. Padalecki.”

“You told me I couldn’t see Jensen while he was out.” Jared gestures to the window. “Does he look unconscious to you?”

Tahmoh steps forward. “Let’s all just take it easy, okay?”

It’s the first time since Tahmoh showed up in Vancouver that Jared hears anxiety in his friend’s voice.

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Jared insists.

“I don’t think you need to keep them separated.” Emily comes to his defense. “In fact, Jensen seemed to sense that Jared was here. He woke up almost as soon as Jared walked into the lab, and with no side effects.”

Jared is grinning until he hears the last two words.

Tahmoh sighs with relief and looks at Entranto. “I told you it would be fine, Sergeant.”

Entranto stands firm, and so do the officers flanking him. One of them is the poor MP Osric subdued at the surface. The guy seems a little dazed, but he’s upright and looking at Jared like he doesn’t recognize him. 

Damn, how hard did Osric hit him in the head?

“With all due respect, Colonel, I hope you’re not letting your personal feelings for the subject and Mr. Padalecki cloud your judgement.”

“I wasn’t going to order Jared to stay away from Jensen,” Tahmoh says, standing a bit straighter and letting some of his rank bleed into his tone. “If you’d explained the entire situation to him from the get-go, maybe we could have done this more efficiently.”

Unfazed, Entranto shoots back, “I don’t think he would’ve listened, sir.”

Jared is fed up with the two of them talking around him.

“Someone tell me what the hell is going on!”

Seven pairs of eyes are locked on Jared, but only the staff sergeant speaks.

“He’s unstable, Mr. Padalecki, which you would understand if you’d bothered to listen to any of us.”

Jared gasps. “Unstable? But look at him, he seems fine!” 

His eyes find Jensen’s through the glass. That unfamiliar and piercing expression is back–Jensen’s gaze is full of purpose and power–and Jared wonders if he’s made a liar of himself.

“He’s not the same as the Jensen Ackles you knew,” Entranto says, and Jared doesn’t think anyone else in the room is as shocked as he is to hear a trace of empathy in his voice. 

“Beyond the fact that he hasn’t spoken since he was brought here and doesn’t seem to recognize the colonel or Dr. Swallow, there have been a number of violent outbursts followed by blackouts. We assumed, and Dr. Swallow confirmed this, that the blackouts were necessary for the subject to recover. Each time he came out of these ‘regenerative states’ he was stronger. Not only that, but we started to notice abilities he’d never been known to have before.”

“And you think this is all because of the meteorite?” Jared asks, the threads finally starting to come together in his mind. He sees Tahmoh look at Emily. The two of them were probably counting on Osric filling him in. 

Glancing over his shoulder, Jared waits for Jensen’s eyes to shift in his direction again and smiles in a way he hopes is reassuring. He doesn’t want to look away, but his first priority is getting Jensen out of that cell.

“Maybe the meteorite had something to do with Jensen waking up, but then you went and brought them both here.”

Jared looks around at the people who were supposed to be helping. It would be easier if Osric was here to back him up–he was the only one who seemed to be on Jared’s side–and Jared hopes he’s not about to spend a lot of time sitting in a cell for getting him past base security.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe keeping Jensen and the meteorite so close together was causing all of this?”

He doesn’t need anyone to respond. From the shocked look on Tahmoh’s face, Jared already has his answer. 

“Let me take him out of here,” Jared pleads, taking one step back towards the window and keeping Jensen in his peripheral vision. “I swear, he’ll be fine. Keeping him down here in this bunker like he’s your prisoner–”

Entranto steps forward and, just for a moment, Jared thinks he’s going to relent.

“We’ll take your suggestion under advisement, Mr. Padalecki. But, for now, it’s time for you to go.”

“I’m not leaving this bunker unless Jensen comes with me!”

Entranto isn’t swayed by the emotional outburst. “This isn’t a negotiation. You’ll leave, or you’ll be removed. It’s up to you.”

Tahmoh, who’d moved across the lab to look at something on Emily’s computer, tries to reason with Jared.

“Look, Jared, we’ll get the meteorite out of the bunker.” He glances at Emily who agrees with a sharp nod. “You need to give us time to run more tests. You’ve got to understand that we can’t just let Jensen go. Not this soon.”

Jared sees red. “He’s not an experiment, Tahmoh! I thought you understood that better than anyone.”

The colonel flinches as if slapped, but Jared doesn’t have a chance to appreciate the sight. At Entranto’s nod, two of the MPs step forward, cautious hands over their sidearms.

Tahmoh doesn’t back down. “Hold on, Sergeant, let me take Jared back up to the ops center. There’s no need to force him.”

Yes, there is a need, because Jared doesn’t plan on letting Jensen out of his sight. Three years of nothing but feeling lost and alone, standing on the edge of a vast, dark ocean just waiting for something he couldn’t identify, and now he’s here with only a wall of glass separating him from the one person who could guide him to safer shores.

One of the MPs reaches for Jared’s arm. He yanks it away, but the other officer is there to grab him. Fueled by his need to stay close to Jensen, he struggles against the hands trying to restrain him. Jared can hear Emily and Tahmoh arguing on his behalf, and when the other two MPs move to prevent them from helping, Tahmoh’s orders become even more vehement.

Jared’s about to try breaking their hold one more time when a sound unlike anything he’s ever heard before stops everyone cold. The entire bulletproof window crumples to the floor with a thunderous crash, a thousand cracks spreading from two fist-sized points of impact.

Seconds later, the two men who’d been restraining Jared are pushed away, their backs colliding with the far wall. They slump to the floor, dazed and unable to get up. The other two MPs flank Entranto, who crouches by the door, taking in the sight of his supposedly secure lab with wide, disbelieving eyes.

And Jensen is standing in front of Jared, reaching for his hand.

Jared sees lights flashing around the lab–the broken window must have triggered an alarm–each pulse reflected in the swirling greenish black of Jensen’s eyes. The MPs on either side of Entranto are reaching for their weapons, Tahmoh shouting from where he’s standing protectively over Emily. The other men won’t be down for long, and Entranto is already pushing himself up.

They might only have a few minutes before an entire base security force is storming the lab. Even if there was time to make a choice, Jared would make the same one every time.

Jared takes a deep breath and lets Jensen grab his hand.


	4. Chapter 4

  
**CHAPTER FOUR**

When Jared’s feet touch the ground, he knows exactly where he’s standing.

He hasn’t stepped foot here in three years, but the land is as familiar to him as the pattern of freckles across Jensen’s nose. Only now there are piles of upturned dirt and stone on the westward facing hill, where it’s as if the earth forced something out.

That something lands softly beside Jared.

It’s not every day you see a man standing over his own grave.

Jensen’s face is turned into the late afternoon sun, warm light surrounding him as he stands silently on the hillside. It pains Jared to think that this might be the first time Jensen’s seen sunlight since he came back, the bunker isolating him from the world he came to care for so much as well as the people who loved him in return. 

Jared can’t stop looking at him, even for a second. This moment is beyond anything he’d ever imagined for himself, and the reality leaves him a little lightheaded.

Once Jared took Jensen’s hand back at Fort Jasper, Jensen pulled Jared out of the lab and down the hall faster than any human could have reacted. In a flash, they reached a door, and Jensen yanked it open to reveal an emergency staircase lit with faint green lights going up at least fifty feet. Jared went to climb the first step, but found himself being carried up by Jensen’s powerful momentum. A hatch at the top gave way with one shove, and when they emerged, Jared found himself standing at the far edge of the base.

Barely given a chance to catch his breath, Jared felt arms around his waist, steadying him as the ground got further and further away. Jared closed his eyes after that, breathing in the warm, Texas wind and willing his swooping stomach to stay calm as Jensen carried him away.

Flying with Jensen was incomparable. He rarely found words to describe the sensation of what was a wholly inhuman experience. Always thrilling and terrifying in equal measure until Jared got used to it and, after that, there was almost nothing he loved more. Long journeys with plenty of stops so Jared could regain his equilibrium.

Soaring away from Fort Jasper, Jared could have sworn they were flying faster than ever before.

Now that they’re back on the ground, Jared notices that Jensen is staring at the jagged piece of stone that once served as his headstone. Specifically, at the small plaque affixed to it.

“The stone is from New Orleans.” Jared feels compelled to explain even if Jensen has no idea what he’s talking about. “I had it placed there to honor what you did there, giving your life to save what was left. That way no one would ever be able to forget.”

Jensen looks over, their eyes meeting for the first time without a sheet of bulletproof glass between them.

“You wouldn’t have wanted a big fancy monument. I–I thought you’d appreciate something real.”

When he had the plaque made, Jared did his best to replicate the etching from where Jensen was first discovered, placing that side by side with his chosen name and the date of his death. Trying to honor both parts of the man he loved.

“I’ve been here.”

Hearing Jensen’s voice for the first time in three years is pain and euphoria. The sound breaks his heart and heals the hurt at the same time.

“This is where they found me,” Jensen says, looking down at his upturned grave, “but I think I was here before.”

Jensen’s gaze sweeps from east to west, turning his face to the sun once again.

Over the last three years, Jared has spoken to Jensen in his mind a thousand times, but words fail him now. He can’t bring himself to explain that this is their land or tell Jensen about the day they signed the sale papers and camped out on this very hillside to celebrate. He wants Jensen to smile back at him and say he remembers before pulling Jared into his arms.

Remaining apart, their bodies cast two long shadows on the ground.

“We need to go,” Jensen says suddenly, cocking his head to the south and listening. “They’re on their way.”

Jared goes cold.

“Who? Soldiers from the base?”

Jensen nods. Considering how close their land is to Fort Jasper, Jared isn’t surprised. Somehow, the thought of leaving this place doesn’t sting as much as it should. Escape gives him a focus, something to cut through the turbulent sea in his mind.

“I don’t really know where we could go,’ he says. “My mom is living in Arizona now, but I don’t want to get her in trouble. Without any I.D., there’s no way anyone would let you on a plane, even if I could get us tickets. We could rent–”

Jensen cuts him off. “We’ll go to your place.”

“My place? You mean, my apartment?”

“I can fly us.”

“It’s in Vancouver, Jensen. That’s halfway across North America.”

Jensen frowns. “You live in Vancouver?”

Of all the things he could have asked… “Near Sterling’s Institute. I had to, I mean, I couldn’t–”

“It’s fine,” Jensen tells him. “We’ll go there.”

They managed some long trips in the past, usually while Jared was doing research abroad, but nothing on this scale. Jared doesn’t think his system can handle it, let alone the stress it would put on Jensen.

On the other hand, he’s desperate to get the hell out of Texas and put as much distance between them and Staff Sergeant Entranto as possible.

“I can do it.”

“I can’t,” Jared says. “Not while remaining conscious, anyway.”

“Don’t worry,” Jensen tells him, and Jared doesn’t think he’s imagining the fleeting hint of a familiar smile. “I’ll try not to drop you.”

Roland Entranto slams his phone down and groans.

“What a goddamn clusterfuck.”

“Bad news?”

He looks up and sees the colonel standing in the doorway to his office and trying to keep his expression neutral.

“The unit I sent didn’t find the subject or Padalecki at the gravesite.”

Penikett tilts his head. “But they were there?”

“That’s where we traced Padalecki’s phone. Evidence around the gravesite didn’t tell us much about what they were doing there.”

“Jensen was reacting, Sergeant. I don’t think they fled there for any strategic reason.” Penikett sighs. “Do you know where they are now?”

“Padalecki’s cell isn’t pinging off any towers. Either he turned it off, or…”

“Or they’re airborne again,” the colonel finishes. “Not much we can do until they’re back on the ground. I suggest you get some rest, Sergeant. It’s been a hell of a week, and you deserve it.”

“This isn’t over, Colonel,” Entranto reminds him. “We still have the meteorite, and despite Dr. Chau’s progress, we’re no closer to understanding Reactor’s return than we were when it hit.”

“Dr. Chau told me the meteorite was showing signs of ‘powering down,’ I believe he called it. Whatever energy it possessed seems to have been drained. It’s entirely possible the meteorite was nothing more than a battery powering Jensen’s return.”

“All the more reason to keep working,” Entranto grumbles. “We need to know more.”

Penikett shakes his head. “I have no doubt Dr. Chau will continue working until we pry him away. That doesn’t mean you can’t take five and regroup.”

The colonel turns to leave and Entranto is overcome with a crazy urge to get something off his chest. One thought has been eating at him since Ackles escaped.

“None of this is new to you, is it?”

Shoulders stiffening, Penikett stops.

Throwing caution away, Entranto presses. “I’ve been over everything from back then, sir. You were there the last time Jensen escaped.”

“Careful, Sergeant,” Penikett says over his shoulder. “I hope you didn’t just accuse me of aiding today’s escape.”

Entranto had considered it, but given the way events unfolded, he knows it was unlikely. The colonel was with him when Padalecki broke into the bunker, apparently after stealing Dr. Chau’s encoded badge and subduing a guard. He never thought the man had it in him, although it wouldn’t be the first time he misjudged someone.

“That’s not what I was implying, sir. Permission to speak freely?”

Tahmoh turns, his mouth wound into a grimace. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you’ve been doing for the last twenty-four hours if not ‘speaking freely,’ but go ahead.”

“I’ve read the files, sir,” Entranto says, fully aware of the short tether he’s on. “You helped Jensen break out of a black ops facility. What I can’t figure out is why.”

“Why he broke out?”

Entranto shakes his head. “Why you risked your entire career to help him do it.”

Penikett is silent for a moment, leaving Entranto to wonder if the question was too personal.

“If you’ve read everything, you know I was on the team that found Ackles. My covert unit was responding to reports of strange phenomena, and we thought someone was experimenting with a new kind of weapon. Instead, we found Jensen. It wasn’t long before he woke up and my superiors figured out what he was capable of and how they could use him.”

Most of Ackles’ missions were classified, but Entranto guessed the basics as he was doing his research.

“It went on for years,” Penikett continues. “He and I were close. Well, as close as we could be on a team like that. All he wanted was a normal life. He’d done so much for the division, but I knew it was slowly killing him. I saw him as an endangered species, so when he decided to escape, I didn’t stand in his way.”

“And then you were tasked with bringing him back?” Entranto asks.

“That’s what the division wanted, but when I saw how well he was doing in Austin, how much better he seemed with Jared, I knew I couldn’t fulfill my mission.”

“And the division just let him go?”

The colonel smirks. “Reactor was already getting press. At that point, they couldn’t really make a move against him, and since I was already helping him, the Army promoted me and put me in charge of anything related to him.”

Not all of Entranto’s questions have been answered, but as Penikett finishes telling his story, Entranto feels like he’s gotten the full measure of the colonel, finally.

After another moment of silence, Penikett stands to leave. At the door, he pitches his voice low so there’s no chance anyone else will overhear.

“I didn’t regret helping Jensen back then, nor did I regret helping Jared recover his body after New Orleans so that he could have a proper burial. If you knew the man the way I did, you’d understand why I never questioned it. Let’s just say I was willing to risk a hell of a lot more than my career where Jensen was concerned.”

Entranto closes his eyes, needing time to consider everything the colonel shared. However, he can’t help asking one last question.

“So, what do we do now?”

True to his warning, Jared spent most of the trip out of Texas in blacked-out bliss, waking every so often to watch the lights pass by beneath them, or whenever Jensen would set them down to take stock of their progress. The darkness kept them hidden from curious eyes on the ground, and Jared hoped it would cover their tracks for a little while, at least.

Despite the comfort of flying with Jensen again, feeling like they’re the only two people in the world while surrounded by a blanket of stars above them, blinking civilization below, he doesn’t know that he’s ever felt more exhausted than he does when they’re finally back in Vancouver, standing in the parking lot of Jared’s building.

The majority of the trip had been made in silence, hours devoted to letting Jared adjust to the feel of Jensen’s arms around him, never fearing for a second that Jensen couldn’t support him. Then Jared spent the last hour wide-awake, directing Jensen with a word or a squeeze once he recognized the pattern of lights and roadways beneath them as he got closer to home. 

“This it?”

Jared frowns and looks up at his building, trying to weigh it through Jensen’s eyes. It’s plain, sure, but it could be worse.

“Something wrong?”

Jensen shakes his head.

Two of the four lights in Jared’s parking lot are burned out, leaving the area dark enough for Jared to spy the faintest glimpse of a glowing green swirl beneath Jensen’s skin. It fades in and out, curling below Jensen’s ear and down the side of his neck.

Jared thinks back to the sight of the meteorite and feels an icy tingle run up his spine.

He’s not unfamiliar with those marks. The two of them used to lie in the dark, Jared’s fingers tracing the snaking patterns while Jensen tried not to squirm. He always thought of them as signs of Jensen’s power lying below the surface, flaring brighter whenever Reactor was needed.

Jensen’s voice breaks into his thoughts. 

“We should get inside.”

Upstairs, it’s up to Jensen to open the front door since Jared’s keys are still sitting in his duffle bag at Fort Jasper. It’s nothing for Jensen to snap the deadbolt (Jared is too tired to worry about the broken lock tonight) and lead Jared inside, everything just as he left it the night before.

Jared drops onto his couch before his legs give out, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. Jensen stands in the middle of the room and looks around, overly cautious as if Entranto could have somehow developed superpowers of his own and beaten them back here.

Fatigue aside, Jared wishes they were back in the air. Silence brought a certain amount of comfort, a chance to feel and process the impossible as they moved further and further away from that scarred hill in the middle of Texas.

Jared scratches the back of his head and says, “I’d give you a tour, but I don’t think I can stand up right now.”

Pausing in his vigilance, Jensen looks over. “It’s more important that you rest. You haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

Through another yawn, Jared scoffs. “Sensed that, did you?”

“You keep rubbing your eyes,” Jensen says. “I think you used to do that whenever you were overtired.” He turns away and therefore misses the soft smile on Jared’s face.

“If you don’t think we’re safe…” Jared hesitates. “We could go somewhere else.”

Jensen considers it for a moment before shaking his head. “It’s fine for now. I don’t think you could handle another flight.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” he says, raising his finger at Jensen. “I just need to get used to it again, okay?”

Jared knows he should be careful with Jensen–he remembers what Entranto said about his rages–but he’s also desperate for this to feel normal, willfully ignoring the idea that normal might mean something altogether different now.

“What about you?” Jared asks. “Getting us here couldn’t have been easy. Do you need to recover? I know, at the lab, Entranto said you needed time–”

“It’s different here,” Jensen cuts in. “At the base, it was something I couldn’t control. It felt like…”

Watching Jensen sort through his thoughts, Jared wants to stand and go to him. He can’t even imagine the kinds of things Jensen is remembering, circumstances Jared can’t begin to understand.

Jensen starts pacing. “I heard what you said back in the lab, about the meteorite affecting me, and I think you were right. I could feel surges of energy, like being hooked up to an I.V. And when they stopped, I couldn’t help but fall into one of those regenerative states. It was as if the meteorite had control over me. I could feel it in my head, too, even when I was out.”

Once again, Jared can’t believe no one at the base realized how badly the meteorite’s proximity was affecting him. Osric had his theories about Acklinium, but even the chemical cosmologist never said it could have adverse effects–he was more focused on the implications and potential opportunities anyway. He didn’t have a personal stake in Jensen.

“But you don’t feel any of that now?”

“Getting away from that base was probably the best thing I could’ve done.”

Hearing that dispels one of the many fears in Jared’s mind. A small part of him worried whether helping Jensen get away would do more harm than good. Every moment that passes shows him that he made the right decision.

As if he could sense the direction of Jared’s thoughts, Jensen says, “Seriously, I’m okay. To tell you the truth, I think I’m tired. _Real_ tired, not the meteorite-induced kind.”

Those are words to Jared’s ears. He pushes himself off the couch and goes to take Jensen’s hand.

“Great, we could both use some sleep, then. Let me show you my bedroom, or I guess one of us could take the couch if that’s weird. Is it weird?” Exhaustion is turning his thoughts in circles. “I mean, whatever you want to do.”

“You go ahead,” Jensen says, stepping out of Jared’s reach. “I’ll keep an eye on things.”

“You said it yourself, we’ll be fine. For a little while, at least. Can’t we just–”

He doesn’t want to leave Jensen out here where Jared won’t be able to just open his eyes and see him. He’s spent the last three years wishing Jensen was beside him, and to give him up so quickly after getting him back is like falling into one of his recurring nightmares.

“It doesn’t have to be anything,” Jared tells him, wondering if that’s why Jensen is avoiding getting too close. “Could you–I just need…”

Jared can’t handle the way Jensen is looking at him right now, like Jared’s a puzzle he put together once, but now all the pieces have been flipped over and he needs to start again.

“Fine,” Jared sighs. Anything to wipe that look off Jensen’s face. “Forget I said anything. Feel free to use anything you need, I’m gonna just…”

He trails off as he retreats into the hallway, pausing to glance back one more time. Jensen is watching him, his expression leaving Jared to wonder if Jensen just realized he had one of those pieces in backwards.

Going through the motions on autopilot, Jared gets ready for bed as if he’s planning on waking up and driving to work tomorrow. Shit, he never told anyone at the Institute that he was leaving. He adds that to his mental list of crap to figure out later.

He showers in lukewarm water, brushes his teeth, and when he’s done, takes a long look at himself in the mirror. The weariness written all over his face might be a product of the last week, but he feels older. There’s an ache he can’t identify, a hollow behind his lungs he’s aware of every time he breathes.

Staring at his haggard reflection, Jared wonders how Jensen sees him. Jensen, who hasn’t aged a day during his years spent dormant in the ground. How he must feel, coming back to a man who forgot to take care of himself, who aged in body and spirit.

If Jensen came back changed, scarred or barely recognizable, Jared wouldn’t have cared. The man he loved, the man Jared buried, wouldn’t care, either, but Jared’s already beginning to understand that the Jensen he flew back with isn’t the same. He has yet to work out what that means.

Back in his bedroom, Jared rubs his eyes and tells himself he’s not disappointed to find the room empty. He’s about to crawl into bed when his drowsy gaze falls on the small dish beside his bed: the green dish with a hand-painted tree, a gift from his sister, holds two simple gold rings.

Jensen’s ring is there because Jared couldn’t let him be buried with it, and he couldn’t bear putting it away with the rest of Jensen’s things; Jared’s, because every time he caught sight of it on his finger in the aftermath, he lost Jensen all over again. In the dish, at least they’re together.

He’s too exhausted to jump when a pair of strong arms gently encircles him from behind. Jensen holds him silently, keeping space between their bodies until Jared sobs and pulls him closer.

If Jared is already dreaming, he refuses to waste the gift his subconscious has given him.

Jensen’s body fits against Jared’s back the same way it did before, their curves carved from the same piece of stone. Looking down, Jared sees more swirls of green fluorescing under the skin of Jensen’s forearms.

They stand there for an endless moment, Jared treasuring each heartbeat that passes. The only difference he can feel between now and his memories of Jensen holding him this way is the increased pressure of Jensen’s chest against his spine, every inhale stronger than he remembers.

He keeps expecting the embrace to end as Jensen will inevitably pull away, or dissolve because he was never there. But Jensen doesn’t let go, and Jared finally lets himself fall.

When Jared wakes up alone in his bed the next morning, his first thought is, _what the hell was in that whiskey?_

He hasn’t had a night of undisturbed sleep like that in years. It came with one hell of a dream, though. More real and more twisted than anything he’s ever experienced.

Just then, Jared hears a crash in the kitchen followed by an all too familiar cursing.

“ _Godfuckingdammit_.”

Not a dream after all.

He’s up and out of bed in seconds with Entranto’s warning playing on a loop in his mind. Unconcerned that he’s a rumpled mess, he rushes down the hall and towards the kitchen just in time to see Jensen glaring at the coffee maker. At his feet, one of Jared’s least favorite coffee mugs lies in shards from an unfortunate (deliberate?) incident.

Sometime between Jared falling asleep in his arms and this morning, Jensen changed his clothes. Washed up, too, from the way his hair is damp-dark and his cheeks scrubbed pink. He’s wearing a pair of athletic pants from Jared’s pile of clean laundry and a white T-shirt that reads _Talk Earthy to Me_. Jensen’s shoulders test the limits of the soft cotton, but he looks so good that Jared almost forgets about the chaos in his kitchen.

“It’s a new machine,” Jared says quickly before the coffee maker can join the mug in pieces on the kitchen floor. “It can be a little tricky at first.”

“It’s not that,” Jensen mutters, sounding so much like Jared’s morning grump of a husband that he needs to steady himself with a hand on the countertop. “I can’t remember how you take your coffee.”

“That’s–you were trying to make me coffee?”

“I just wanted to do something that felt normal!” Jensen complains. “I thought this would be easy, but I just don’t remember!”

All worries of Jensen flying into a rage disappear. He looks genuinely upset, and Jared wants nothing more than to comfort him.

“You came into my room last night,” he says cautiously. “Why did you do that?”

Jensen raises an eyebrow at the question. “I keep getting these impressions of the past, like things are slowly starting to come back,” he explains. “When you left me out here, somehow I knew you weren’t okay. I told myself I should stay away, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want you to be alone.”

Superhuman reflexes aren’t enough to prepare Jensen for the way Jared rushes towards him, arms open. Pressed together from kneecaps to shoulders, Jared holds Jensen as tight as he can, grounding him in the moment.

“I can’t explain the memory thing,” Jensen mutters against Jared’s shoulder. “It’s like I know I should remember, but the specifics were overwritten.”

“You know what’s important, Jensen,” he whispers. “It doesn’t matter if you forget the small things. They’ll come back, and if they don’t, we learn them again.”

Though Jared could happily stand like this for hours, Jensen pulls out of the hug a moment later.

“We’re back to the coffee,” Jensen says, and this time he’s grinning. “How _do_ you take it?”

Jared laughs. “Splash of hazelnut creamer, which was your fault, by the way.”

Grabbing the creamer from the fridge, Jensen scowls at the bottle. “I never would have ruined my coffee with this.”

Jared pretends he doesn’t see Jensen adding a splash to his own mug a few minutes later as the coffee maker finishes brewing Jared’s medium roast.

Bringing both mugs to the little kitchen table Jared bought when he moved into his apartment down in Austin, Jensen sits down across from him. More than five minutes pass in quiet appreciation as Jared soaks in every detail (and tries to ignore the flutter he feels when he notices Jensen studying him in return as if he’s trying to sync the past with the present). 

There’s the way the sun from the window flirts with Jensen’s eyelashes, the way his hair has dried in soft sweeps. The _tap-tap_ of Jensen’s finger against the side of the mug–a habit he picked up to annoy Jared when he was too busy going over field notes to pay attention to Jensen in the morning. There is something off about the sound, now. Jared doesn’t get the chance to work out why that is before Jensen distracts him.

“You’re still working in environmental studies?”

When he looks up, he sees that Jensen’s focused on his Institute badge sitting on top of a pile of papers in the middle of the table.

“Basically,” Jared admits without enthusiasm. “I edit grants, read legislation, check people’s work.”

“I remember you choosing fieldwork over office work. What happened? Too boring for you these days?” Jensen’s tone is teasing, but his expression clouds over when he catches the frown on Jared’s face.

“Don’t,” Jared cuts in before Jensen can apologize. “I knew you’d be disappointed.”

“That’s not–”

Jared’s been struggling with how to say this since he saw Jensen through the glass back in the lab, and not even Jensen’s new powers could derail him now.

“I went on for a while after you were gone, because I knew that’s what you would’ve wanted. I tried getting back out into the field, continuing the projects we started, but it was just too hard. Everything seemed too big without you, Jensen.” 

He sighs, remembering the long, dark days between giving up field work and moving to Vancouver.

“And then Sterling offered me a place here with him. We both swore it was temporary, that it was just until I felt okay about picking up where you and I left off.”

“I’m guessing that day never came.”

Jared nods. “It’s a good thing Sterling has a soft spot for me. Except, I haven’t been to work in two days and I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving after Tahmoh basically kidnapped me.”

Given the choice between waiting to hear how Jensen reacts to the idea that Jared gave up on their goals after his death and creating a distraction, Jared goes with the latter. He finishes his coffee in one long swallow and stands to pour them both a refill when Jensen reaches out and grabs his hand.

“Jared, hey. Listen to me.” Jared feels him tug on his hand and steps closer to the table. “I have no right to judge how you’ve been living since I–since I’ve been gone.”

“I wasn’t strong.”

Jensen squeezes his hand. “Who said you had to be?”

“It’s what you would have done,” Jared argues.

This time it’s Jensen moving too fast for Jared to process. In a flash, he’s up and out of his chair and in Jared’s space, eyes lit with the same unique, blazing energy stored deep within his body. He’s tapping into his power, perhaps without even realizing he’s doing it.

Gripping Jared’s hand and holding it to his chest, Jensen makes sure Jared can’t look away when he says, “If I was in your place–if I had to go out without you, I would have fallen apart. You were my anchor in this world,” he emphasizes with a snarl.

“I don’t care what you had to do these last three years, Jared. You _survived_. All that matters to me is that you’re still here.”

Staring into Jensen’s eyes, Jared feels the moment shift. He’s ached to have this chance, but thought it might never come if Jensen was too different to still want him.

It’s not an ideal moment–Jared’s a rumpled mess in his pajamas and everything else in their world remains fragile and uncertain. Still, it feels like them: imperfect and inevitable.

Jared dips his chin, expecting Jensen to lean up the way he used to, yet his lips touch nothing but empty space. Without a word, Jensen steps back, his shoulders stiff.

Obviously, Jared was wrong. He desperately needs to fix this, fear creeping into his mind like storm clouds.

“Fuck, I’m so sorr–”

“Wait,” Jensen says, low and clipped. Stung, Jared shrinks away, stopped by Jensen’s grip on his hand. “No, Jared, that’s not what I meant. I can hear someone coming.”

Jared’s pulse kicks up a notch. “Entranto? Is there a team with him?”

He’s already running through a mental list of places they could go when Jensen shakes his head.

“No, just one person. Headed here, though.”

Jared can’t think of anyone who would drop by randomly–he hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to be social during his time in Vancouver–unless Tahmoh or Emily decided to break ranks and come find them.

Or warn them.

Jensen’s muscles are tensed, and his surge of power hasn’t quite receded, leaving his eyes as smoldering green embers. When the knock comes, he focuses his enhanced senses on identifying whoever it is.

Seconds later, he grins and asks, “Does Sterling still wear that eucalyptus aftershave?”

It’s quiet in the bunker today.

Entranto walks slowly down the hall towards the med lab. On the way, he passes the containment room where the meteorite is being studied. Now that Ackles is gone, plans to move the object have been postponed indefinitely.

Dr. Chau has continued to work as if he’s running out of time. Even now, Entranto watches him frantically making notes on his laptop before standing and circling the mysterious object within its protective shielding.

Out of everyone on the team, Dr. Chau seemed the least perturbed by Ackles’ escape. Entranto supposes that’s because his meteorite remains here; surely, he’d gotten all the data he needed from Reactor himself. It could follow that the cosmologist is glad they’re gone after the way Jared stole his badge and assaulted one of the MPs right in front of him. Entranto still remembers how the dazed guard was shaking when he told the staff sergeant what happened, Dr. Chau confirming his story.

Further down the hall, he finds Dr. Swallow in the med lab as expected. All day, she’s been packing up some of the more advanced medical equipment. Without a patient to study, it isn’t necessary to have the machines running all the time. Others, she readies for transport back to .

“Need any help, Doctor?”

“I think I can manage, Roland, but thanks,” she says. “I just want to finish these last two. LifeSys called again, you know.”

Entranto hums. “I’d heard. They need you back?”

“I can’t keep ignoring them. Especially now that Jensen is gone.”

She sighs and drops her head into her hands. Dr. Swallow had taken Jensen’s loss the hardest, blaming herself for letting Jared into the lab in the first place. They all share a part of the blame. 

Looking up, she asks, “Are they still okay?”

He knows she’s referring to their two fugitives. The colonel decided to keep their whereabouts between the two of them; Penikett doesn’t want anything being leaked to the press.

Still, he figures the doctor deserves something.

“We’re keeping an eye on them,” he offers. “As long as neither one of them pulls any crazy stunts, they’ll be okay.”

“Well, you’ll know where to find me if you need anything else,” she says. “Are Osric and Adam staying here?”

Entranto nods. “Dr. Fergus is working in operations to determine if the impact will have any long-term effects on the area. He wants to take another look at the impact site, too. He hasn’t said when he’s leaving.” That suits the staff sergeant just fine; Dr. Fergus keeps to himself, for the most part, and rarely bothers anyone in his unit for non-essential tasks. “Dr. Chau hasn’t left the containment area all day.”

“He was already working when I came down this morning. I think we’ve created a monster,” she adds, laughing. Even Entranto can’t help grinning. “Do me a favor, and make sure he comes up for air sometimes. Okay?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He doubts anything could pry Osric Chau away from the meteorite, but he’ll restrict access if he must. It shouldn’t be a problem for much longer, regardless; Dr. Chau said himself that the output from the meteorite was decreasing every day–something about the levels of Acklinium decreasing. (Entranto gets a little lost in some of the terminology.)

Perhaps the object has served its purpose. Either way, he can’t fault Chau for trying to glean every bit of information he can off the meteorite. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and probably worth a few nights’ lost sleep.

Leaving Dr. Swallow to her work, Entranto makes his way back to the surface where the Colonel is no doubt waiting for another report on Padalecki and Ackles’ movements.

“Wow,” Sterling Brown repeats for the fourth time since he laid eyes on a very-much-alive Jensen Ackles. “Just, damn. I can’t believe it.”

“I had a hard time, too,” Jared admits.

Jared shares a smile with Jensen who’s sitting beside him on the couch.

“This is not what I thought I’d find when I got over here,” Jared’s boss admits with a chuckle. “Not in a million years.”

Ten minutes ago, when Jared opened the door, Sterling rushed into the apartment already talking. Concerned when Jared didn’t show up for work for the second day in a row, he decided to come and see what was wrong. He followed that up with an apology for bringing up Jensen at the Institute the day before Jared disappeared.

That’s when Jensen walked out of the kitchen. 

It took Sterling a minute to recover from the shock. When he did, he reached out and gripped Jensen hard by the shoulders, shaking him to make sure he was real. While the two of them talked, Jared took the opportunity to wash up. One glance in the mirror was all it took to convince Jared that he needed to do something about his neglected beard, trimming it short before shaving his skin smooth. After that, he changed out of his pajamas, emerging in jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt to find Jensen and Sterling sitting across from one another.

Jared doesn’t miss the appraising look Jensen gives him when he comes back.

Now that he’s accepted the impossible, Sterling starts asking questions.

“How did this even happen?”

Jensen shrugs. “Just a simple coincidence involving my dormant body, a meteorite, and a dozen small earthquakes.”

Sterling’s jaw drops.

“He’s serious,” Jared corroborates. It’s an oversimplification, but those are the important points. He doesn’t want to give Sterling too much information in case anyone comes after the two of them. “It also involved a few scientists and a military base from which we may or may not have escaped last night.”

Jared catches the quickly hidden smirk on Jensen’s face.

“You can’t say anything about this,” Jared tells Sterling. “Not yet. There’s still too much going on, things we don’t know.”

Sterling, blessed with scientific curiosity, can’t resist. “Like what?”

“Like how a damn meteorite happened to hit the ground so close to where I was buried,” Jensen grumbles. “One that also happened to be filled with the same weird element they found in my blood.”

Obviously, Sterling has no answers for him. Though he’s one of the few people privy to Jensen’s secret identity as the otherworldly hero, Reactor, Sterling doesn’t know anything about Jensen’s life before he met Jared, including his time with a black ops military unit. To protect their friends and family, Jared and Jensen made the decision a long time ago to keep those details to themselves.

“You mentioned scientists.” Sterling gestures towards himself. “Anyone I’d know?”

“Dr. Swallow,” Jared says, “we’ve mentioned her before. Adam Fergus, he’s a–”

“A geologist,” Sterling fills in the blank. “I’ve met him. Brilliant guy, but not much of a people person.”

Jared snorts.

“He must have been there because of the earthquakes. Anyone else?”

“Dr. Chau,” Jensen says, though his gaze is far off like he’s wandering around in his own thoughts.

“Osric,” Jared clarifies, remembering the quirky cosmologist with a smile.

Sterling considers the name for a moment, furrows dug deep across his forehead as he ponders.

“I think I’ve read some of his work. Chemist with an outer space focus, right? He’s insanely smart and driven. His theories always seemed a little ahead of the science, but I guess that happens when you mostly study space.”

“That, and he’s got a serious roundhouse kick,” Jared mutters.

Jensen frowns. “Huh?”

“It’s nothing,” Jared says. He hasn’t told Jensen how he was able to get down into the bunker. “Never mind.”

Eventually, as the conversation continues, Sterling brings up Jared’s job.

“Seems to me like you’re gonna need some time to sort things out,” Sterling tells them. “Don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of vacation days.”

He says it with a teasing smile, but Jared knows that Jensen can hear what’s not being said: that Jared rarely gave himself a break, letting the job consume most of his time even though what he’s doing is hardly satisfying.

“And when you want to come back–both of you–I’ve got plenty of projects for your consideration. Unless you want me to see if anyone else is interested in heading up a team in Argentina?”

Jensen whistles. “Argentina?” 

His eyes fill with a warm shade of green, like the color of the sun hitting full, waxy magnolia leaves Jared remembers his mother growing when he was a child. 

“Remember that, Jared?” Jensen asks, shades of wonder in his voice as he finally pulls something from their past. “Didn’t we talk about going there someday. Walking beneath the glaciers, camping for weeks in Patagonia?”

Even as Jared smiles back, pain rips through his heart. For three years, he was cursed to remember every conversation, every detail of their life together. At times, it was excruciating.

He doesn’t yet understand what it was like for Jensen, being dormant for so long, but he doubts it was the same. Whether Jensen felt as if no time passed at all, or if he spent those years dreaming on another plane of existence, he doesn’t bear the same scars.

Sensing the changed mood, Sterling takes a deep breath and stands up. “I’d better be getting back. Like I said, don’t worry about anything right now. I’ve got plenty of interns to torment with your workload.”

Sterling looks between them and shakes his head in disbelief. 

“I have a feeling it’s gonna take a while for all this to sink in, anyway.” With a nod in Jensen’s direction, he adds, “It’s really good to see you again. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Leave what?” Jensen asks.

“The task of convincing Jared to go to Argentina with you.”

“Any problems?” Colonel Penikett asks as soon as Entranto steps back into the main ops center.

“Dr. Swallow’s convoy reached the airfield and her plane took off five minutes ago,” he responds. “Everything went smoothly, sir.”

“I told you it would. Jared and Jensen weren’t going to risk coming back, and they definitely wouldn’t do anything to harm Emily.”

All of that might be true, but Entranto will feel better once he hears that Dr. Swallow is safely back home in California. Looking around the room, he sees that most of his staff has retired for the night, only three night techs monitoring their stations.

“Have there been any updates?” he asks the colonel.

Penikett hands him a piece of paper with several small, grainy photos showing Ackles and Padalecki standing in a parking lot. Timestamp puts them back in Vancouver the night before.

“They’re lying low,” Penikett says. “Right now, I think that’s best for everyone.”

“You’re not worried, sir?” They’d both seen what Ackles was capable of while he was down in the bunker. Just because a handful of people thought he would be stable away from the meteorite, doesn’t make it fact. “He could do significant damage before we’re able to reach him.”

“Jared won’t let anything happen to his husband, Sergeant. I worked with them for years. I never once saw Jensen lose control outside of containment here.”

“There’s more for him to worry about than brief rages,” Entranto points out.

“I made sure Jared was aware of the risks.”

Entranto looks over. “You told him everything?”

“I gave him what he needed.”

It’s cryptic, but Entranto has enough to worry about, and the colonel’s been right about Ackles so far.

“There’s also the matter of the meteorite.”

Penikett frowns. “We agreed that moving it might draw too much attention. Have I missed something?”

“No sir,” Entranto says, “but we should consider shutting down the study.”

“The longer it goes, the more we’ll be able to learn,” the colonel argues. “Dr. Chau is bound to find out even more about its origins. The results could be life-changing. I’ve been reading his reports on the element’s potential applications in medicine and advanced weaponry.”

“So have I. That’s how I know word is bound to get out, and then we’ll have every lab and government official knocking down our door trying to get to it.” Entranto scowls at the thought of more people invading his base. The civilians he dealt with this week were bad enough. “I think we should bury it.”

Colonel Penikett opens his mouth, but Entranto never hears what he’s about to say. 

Alarms sound from all corners of the room, sending the three techs scrambling for information. Entranto spins and checks the monitor closest to him.

“One of the lab sensors?” Penikett shouts over the clamor.

With one glance at the screen, Entranto knows it’s something much, much worse.

“No, someone’s triggered an emergency alarm!”

“Where?”

“Containment!”

Two military police guards appear just outside the ops center. Entranto is already moving towards them. The colonel jumps to help with the response, but Entranto waves him down. 

“No! Someone needs to monitor the situation from up here!”

Penikett nods and makes his way towards an empty workstation. Heart thundering in his chest, Entranto leads the MPs to the elevator. Using his radio, he directs another detachment of guards to the emergency stairwell that leads out of the bunker, remembering how Ackles and Padalecki were able to escape.

When he and the MPs step out of the elevator, the lights above their heads are flickering, casting strange shadows on the reinforced walls. The alarm cuts out and Entranto’s attention is drawn to shouts from further down the corridor. He rushes towards the containment lab, hand on his weapon, half expecting to see Ackles tampering with the meteorite. Or worse, attempting to destroy it.

What he finds is their geologist fighting with their cosmologist, the dull sounds of flesh hitting flesh as the two men grapple in the middle of the demolished lab. It only takes a few seconds to register that this isn’t a mere physical disagreement; the hits are coming fast and brutal, nothing held back by either man. Entranto can only stare as he watches Dr. Chau duck a swinging cross before hitting Dr. Fergus square in the chest, sending him crashing into one of the tables. 

“What the hell is going on here?!” Entranto shouts over the sound of expensive equipment being smashed beneath the weight of two grown men. “Stand down, both of you!”

Fergus shoves Dr. Chau away. When he looks at the staff sergeant, his nose is bleeding, possibly broken, and his shirt is ripped, revealing a long, seeping gash across his ribs. The geologist needs medical attention as soon as possible, but his focus is on Chau who, by contrast, looks dishevelled yet otherwise unharmed. 

“I walked in on him injecting himself!” Fergus shouts, blood on his lips. “He’s been siphoning energy from the meteorite and fucking dosing himself!”

Turning to Dr. Chau for an explanation, Entranto is shocked when the man roars and throws himself across the room, barreling into Fergus and knocking him into a metal cabinet. Entranto only has seconds to take in the scene–broken shielding around the meteorite, glass and jagged debris littered across the floor, a metal syringe rolling beneath one of the workstations–before Chau picks Fergus up and slams him against the counter as if the geologist weighed nothing.

“You have no idea what I’ve discovered!” Chau yells, a manic smile on his face. “I’m the only one trying to understand the meteorite! All of you–you only cared about Reactor, but this, _this_ is the key!”

Dr. Fergus groans and rolls off the counter onto the floor, leaving red smears beneath his body as he crawls.

“Ackles doesn’t matter! The meteorite has all of the answers!”

“Crazy fucking son of a bitch,” Fergus curses from the floor. “I fucking knew you were up to something. All that talk about creating a _supersoldier_ , always working and never sleeping. I fucking saw you inject yourself and then you tried to mess with my head and make me forget!”

It’s like a punch to the throat as the pieces fall into place. Entranto knew Padalecki didn’t have it in him to subdue a guard–it must’ve been Chau the entire time.

“Take Dr. Chau into custody,” Entranto orders his men, drawing his weapon at the same time.

The two MPs move forward, but Chau is faster than they expect. In a flash, he’s across the room and ripping their guns out of their hands. With a crunch that brings bile up to the back of Entranto’s throat, one MP goes down, his leg twisted unnaturally beneath his body. His screams cover the sound of the second guard hitting the floor, unconscious from a hit to the head.

Chau hasn’t even broken a sweat.

“Think you can take me, Sergeant?” he taunts. “I’ve got a lot of new tricks, thanks to the meteorite. Want to see?”

Behind Chau, Entranto can see Fergus crawling towards the metal syringe.

“What you’ve done...it’s a breakthrough,” Entranto says, desperate to stall. If Penikett can access the cameras in here, more guards must be on their way down. “But you need to stop before anyone else gets hurt.”

“Sorry, Sergeant, I can’t stop now. One more thing here, and I’ll be on my way.”

Chau glances back and sees Fergus on the floor with his bloody hand reaching for the syringe. Grinning, Chau kicks out and connects hard with the geologist’s chest, sending him spinning across the floor and into the wall. There’s a stomach-turning _crack_ as Fergus’ head hits the stone wall, and he goes completely still, one last breath rattling past his lips.

Entranto has watched people die before, but never like this.

He’s frozen, unable to move or stop Dr. Chau from picking up the last syringe and pocketing it. When Chau turns around, his eyes have changed. They’re dark, the whites obscured by inky blue, bottomless and ice cold. 

Entranto is the only thing standing between Chau and the rest of Fort Jasper. Praying that the colonel has seen enough to start evacuating the base, Entranto raises his weapon and fires. He gets two shots off before Chau is right there in front of him, laughing and wrenching the weapon out of his grip.


	5. Chapter 5

  
**CHAPTER FIVE**

“I can’t believe you got all this delivered,” Jensen says, staring at their demolished dinner spread of pan pizza topped with vegan cheese, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes, sriracha tofu wings, and vegetable lo mein, along with a week’s worth of groceries and necessities Jared was able to order from his computer.

Jared leans back and rubs his stomach. He hasn’t eaten this well in months, possibly years. 

“You can get anything delivered with the right app.”

“I’ll buy next time,” Jensen offers. “That is, if any of my credit cards still work.”

Jared smiles. The joke eases some of the tension that’s been putting pressure on Jared’s temples since Sterling left earlier. Jensen hasn’t said anything about it, but Jared caught him staring every so often.

Sterling brought reality back into focus. As far as the world is concerned, Jensen Ross Ackles died three years ago, listed officially as another casualty of the attack on New Orleans. The meteorite may have brought the man back to life, but Jensen is still legally dead.

He’s hoping Tahmoh can help them out with the paperwork. After all, the colonel helped them bring Jensen Ackles to life once before. That is, if he’s still feeling generous after what happened at Fort Jasper. There’s been no word from Tahmoh, however. Jared was convinced the colonel would have checked in by now, if only to see how Jensen was managing away from the contained environment of the bunker. Jared has no way of knowing if Staff Sergeant Entranto is on the hunt for Jensen, or if he decided to let them go for the time being.

Even if they’re able to quietly resurrect Jensen on paper, there’s still a distance between the two of them. A vast ocean filled with all the things Jared wants to say to Jensen, three years of heartache and pain, memories that turned into nightmares without Jensen there to steady his course.

Jared blames some of it on the near-kiss. Since Sterling’s knock at the door shattered the moment, it has cast a shadow over everything they’ve done, and Jared can’t stop thinking about it.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was filled with distractions. Jared found a few pieces of Jensen’s clothing in a box at the bottom of his closet. He was grateful to finally have something of his own to wear instead of Army-issued athleisure gear and things he borrowed from Jared. The smile on his face when he put on his old _Keep Austin Weird_ T-shirt made Jared want to try kissing him all over again.

After that, Jensen poked around Jared’s apartment. He spent half an hour reading titles from Jared’s Blu-ray collection and creating a pile of movies he wanted to watch as soon as possible.

“How many Marvel movies are there, now? Like, thirty?”

“DC’s gotten into the game now, too,” Jared had explained. “They even made a Justice League movie.”

Jensen thought hard on that before asking, “How was it?”

With a smirk, Jared said, “I’ll let you see for yourself.”

Figuring out what to order for dinner took even longer as Jensen couldn’t remember his favorite foods. Ten minutes into listening to Jensen debate with himself, Jared ordered everything on his shortlist. He was starving, too.

Now that they’ve eaten their fill, they work side by side to clean up. It’s nearly as effortless as it used to be; though, this is a different apartment and Jensen isn’t sure where everything goes in Jared’s kitchen. Jared’s about to say that he hopes Jensen will stick around long enough to find out, but the words fall apart on his tongue.

“Mind if I take another shower?” Jensen asks when they’re finished. “I just...I feel kind of itchy. I think it was being held in that room for a week. I can still feel it all over my skin.”

Put like that, Jared won’t say no. He reminds Jensen to use whatever he wants and leaves two of his fluffiest towels on the rack beside the tub because he remembers how much Jensen liked those.

It feels strange not to have Jensen in the room with him. They’ve barely separated since Jensen came crashing through the glass in the med lab. Jared tells himself to relax, that Jensen isn’t gone, yet it still takes him a few minutes to get his breathing under control.

He decides to distract himself, starting with his email. Scrolling through various Institute memos, two dozen newsletters he keeps meaning to unsubscribe from, and a whole lot of junk, Jared doesn’t click on anything until he reaches the most recent email. According to the timestamp, it was sent several hours ago. The name of the sender makes him do a double take.

> **THE OFFICE OF COLONEL TAHMOH PENIKETT**  
>  [Secure File Transmission]  
>  **Subject: WATCH**

  
The body of the email is blank, but there are a dozen video attachments listed at the bottom.

Jared clicks on the first one and feels his heart leap into his throat.

He recognizes the med lab from the bunker right away. From the angle of the camera, he’s watching base security footage. Checking the timestamp, this video was recorded a week ago. That was just after Jensen was brought back to the base.

There’s no audio with the files, but Jared stares slack-jawed at motion-activated recordings of Jensen going through his rages, shaking and screaming inside of that horrible, impersonal room. The camera’s resolution is high enough for Jared to make out the way Jensen’s eyes swirl with dark, shadowy power, nothing like the bright green he knows so well, as he thrashes and destroys anything he can get his hands on. 

It crushes Jared to see that Jensen is always alone, no one rushing into the room to provide comfort. And they wondered _why_ he was so silent and hostile.

The violent outbursts are followed by the regenerative states Emily mentioned. To Jared, those ‘states’ appear more like Jensen passing out from the pain instead of dropping into a restful calm, the way Emily led him to believe.

The buzzing between his ears gets louder the longer Jared watches. It’s difficult because he knows he’s the reason Jensen had to go through all of this. Leaving Jensen buried for three years, not even able to get to the base fast enough to spare him this kind of suffering. He forces himself to keep clicking, one clip after another; it’s the least he can do after what Jensen went through.

The clips are all two and three-minute segments, but one is completely different, covering more than an hour. When Jared opens the file, he sees Jensen out cold on the hospital bed. He thinks it’s a mistake at first–a file Tahmoh didn’t mean to send–until he sees movement at the window. The same one Jensen destroyed trying to prevent Jared from being harmed.

It takes Jared a few seconds to figure out that it’s Osric Chau on the other side of the glass. The cosmologist lurks at the window, just watching Jensen sleep. His hand is on the glass, lips moving as if he’s talking to himself. Speeding up the video and checking the times, Jared realizes that Osric stands there for the entire length of the video. It’s a strangely obsessive scene, which strikes Jared oddly since Osric seemed far more interested in the meteorite than the hero it raised from the ground.

When he opens the next clip, he gasps. It’s the recording from the day Jared walked into the lab with Emily and laid eyes on Jensen for the first time.

After sitting in silence for the last forty-five minutes, Jared startles when he hears Jensen’s voice behind him.

“I knew you were coming.”

He listens to Jensen’s footsteps getting closer, feels gentle hands massaging top of Jared’s spine, which had gone stiff with tension while he watched the recordings. The scent of his own sandalwood body wash wafts off Jensen’s shower-warm skin.

“That’s why I didn’t leave the base sooner,” he goes on. “I knew I was strong enough to do it, but then I heard Tahmoh say he was planning to bring you there.”

Jared hears Jensen take a deep breath behind him.

“You were in my head. Not a complete picture–being that close to the meteor really fucked everything up–but I could feel how important you were, and that I needed to stay. Once I saw you, things started to fall into place.”

Jared lets some of the strain melt out of his frame. Being under Jensen’s hands is familiar. For a moment, it’s as if he’s back in Austin working on his graduate projects with Jensen’s often silent support there to bolster him during the toughest days.

Times have changed, but Jared needs Jensen to be his cornerstone more than ever.

“Don’t watch those anymore,” Jensen says over his shoulder.

Jared shakes his head and says, “I need to know.”

“Why?” One of Jensen’s hands slowly, gently, rubs the back of Jared’s neck.

“Because it’s all my fault.”

At the broken admission, Jensen’s fingers hesitate briefly. He doesn’t say anything, and Jared keeps going, desperate to get the toxic thoughts out of his head.

“You weren’t dead, Jensen, but I buried you,” he whispers, because the louder he says it, the more it hurts. “Osric told me your cells didn’t decay, that you were just lying there dormant for years, and I just left you there.”

“Jared–”

“I could have done something or figured out a way to bring you back sooner so you didn’t have to spend three years in the fucking ground, only to come back with people like Entranto using you as an experiment.”

He’s shaking now, and Jensen doesn’t hesitate to pull him up and away from his desk, wrapping his arms around Jared.

“None of this is your fault, I swear,” Jensen says, his chest rumbling against Jared’s as he speaks. “I made my choice in New Orleans because I knew I could save you. My death would mean something that way. And in every sense that mattered, I probably _was_ dead. No one knew coming back was possible, certainly not then.”

“I should have known,” Jared insists, holding back a sob.

“In a way, you saved me from something much worse.”

Confused, Jared leans back and looks Jensen in the eyes.

“I heard what you said to the colonel back in the lab. That he should understand I wasn’t an ‘experiment’. I have a feeling you’re the reason the military didn’t end up with my body after I–”

Jensen stops, no doubt able to feel Jared holding his breath, but doesn’t let go, supporting Jared as he pulls himself together.

“I couldn’t let them have you,” Jared eventually says, struggling with the words as memories of those chaotic days come to the surface. “Tahmoh used his clearance to help me get you out of the Army’s facility and back to Texas. You deserved peace and a proper burial, not…”

This time it’s Jared who stops. He remembers what Jensen looked like when he closed the simple casket for the last time–frozen, otherworldly, empty–desperate to replace those images with what he sees now. His whole and gorgeous husband, holding onto Jared like he’s never planning to let go.

“You came for me,” Jensen says. “You are the only one who ever cared enough to come back for me.”

“I’ll never stop,” Jared swears. “ _Never_.”

He can feel Jensen smiling against his cheek.

“I’m just glad the meteorite only took three years to get here, instead of three hundred.”

Jared sways in his arms. He’s grateful, too. Forcing all thoughts of the meteorite, the military, and Jensen’s new abilities out of his head, he focuses on the feeling of being in Jensen’s arms, making up for all the empty years.

He never wants to feel that hollow ever again.

“Why didn’t you kiss me before?” Jared whispers.

“Didn’t think I had the right to.”

To which Jared responds, “You’re my husband.”

“Am I? Like you said, it’s been three years.”

Jared is ready to argue when he feels Jensen’s fingers squeeze his sides with tickling pressure. He leans back just in time to see the grin on Jensen’s face.

“Don’t smile,” Jared mutters. “You don’t get to be smug that I wasn’t able to move on with my life.”

“But I’m selfish,” Jensen says, lying through his teeth. “And I’m definitely smug.”

“What’s the real reason?”

And Jensen, for his part, doesn’t dodge the question. 

“Afraid you didn’t want me to.”

Jared feels a flash of grief for Jensen’s lost memories. If Jensen hadn’t lost so many details from their years together, he would know that not a day went by when Jared didn’t want Jensen to kiss him. And when Jensen was gone, not a day went by without Jared wishing he could.

“I know you, Jared. I might not remember everything, but I know what you’re feeling.”

Jensen always has, Jared thinks with a smile, and that’s a superpower that wasn’t given to him by some atomic element or strange meteorite.

“You’ve been angry and hurt, and you’re shouldering so much unnecessary guilt. But there’s a lot of hope, too–hope that I’m the same man I used to be, even though we both know I’m different.”

“You got one thing wrong,” Jared says. “I know you’re different and I don’t care. If you let me, I want the chance to love this you.”

Jensen’s lips touching his is the only response Jared needs.

Three years spent dreaming about the way Jensen used to kiss him doesn’t prepare Jared for the reality. Some things are the same–the texture of Jensen’s lips, the way the top one folds between his, and the tug on his hips as Jensen tries to pull him closer–yet it’s the differences that take Jared’s breath away.

The almost-cool slip of Jensen’s tongue inside Jared’s mouth that leaves him tingling down to his toes, the friction of their late-in-the-day stubble rubbing together as the angle changes, and the rough noise Jared can feel coming from Jensen’s throat when the kiss deepens. Jensen takes most of Jared’s weight easily, muscles as unyielding as steel beneath Jared’s hands.

Jared consumes everything like a man who’s been starved. His heart slams against the inside of his chest where it has left bruises over the years, throat echoing noises with desperate moans of his own. When Jensen’s mouth is suddenly gone, Jared is ready to whine in protest until he feels those soft lips exploring his neck, testing soft hollows and sensitive muscle as Jensen works his way lower.

And oh. Oh _damn_. Jared can’t remember his throat ever being such a sex-trigger for him in the past. It’s been three years since he felt his husband’s touch; Jared’s body has obviously changed, too, because now the press of Jensen’s lips between his collarbones sets off such a cascade of desire, Jared’s barely able to refrain from pushing Jensen onto the table and having him right there.

Jared really doesn’t want to break another table.

“Problem?” Jensen asks when there’s a noticeable hitch in Jared’s breath. His voice is deeper now, arousal raising luminous swirls to the surface of Jensen’s s skin.

“Just don’t want to push things too far,” Jared admits. He’s more than ready, but he’s not the one who was lying in a grave last week. “You just got back. I can wait.”

“Do you want to wait?”

Jared nearly misses the question thanks to Jensen’s mouth playing over the same spot below Jared’s throat, a new weapon in his hefty arsenal. His knees threaten to buckle and Jensen smirks.

“That’s what I thought.”

Jared leans into him–there’s no way Jensen doesn’t feel the effect he’s having on Jared–and asks one last time, “Are you sure?”

“Hell yes.” Jensen looks at him, eyes glowing. “We’re just getting started.”

Jared kept a list of all the places he longed to kiss on Jensen’s body. At the top, his husband’s own lips, which he devoted plenty of time to once they made it to the bedroom. He could have continued kissing Jensen for hours if his lips hadn’t insisted on moving down further down the list.

Next, Jensen’s hands. Kneeling chest-to-chest on the bed, Jared strips Jensen of his clean shirt before venturing lower, his cheek pressed to Jensen’s chest where he can feel his heartbeat. He takes Jensen’s hand and lifts it to his lips, kissing the meat of his palm and the inside of his wrist. The tips of all five fingers receive the same treatment while Jensen looks on with an affectionate smile. Then Jared presses Jensen further back until he’s leaning against the headboard. Jared’s mouth moves on to the warm skin over Jensen’s heart–not originally on the list, but a necessary addition once Jared sees that familiar glow pulsing to the left of Jensen’s sternum in the low light of the room, a curling pattern he committed to memory long ago. The heat beneath Jared’s lips is a reminder of just how much power is contained within Jensen’s strong, beautiful frame, ready to be unleashed at any moment.

Jensen surrenders to the exploration, keeping his hands tracking along Jared’s body as much as possible, fingers pushing through his hair or gripping the back of his neck. When Jared goes to slide further down the bed, Jensen stops him, rearranging them until he’s lying flat on his back with Jared propped above him.

“Gonna let me have my turn?” Jensen slips his hands under Jared’s shirt and tries to pull the black cotton up and over Jared’s shoulders, foiled when Jared sits up out of his reach.

“Can I just…” Jared motions to the rest of Jensen’s body when he doesn’t find the right words. “Please?”

There’s a question in the furrow between Jensen’s brows, but he lets it go with a nod, mouth sweet when Jared leans down and draws him into another lengthy kiss.

Jared commits to knowing every inch of the man beneath him, teasing him by visiting spots that used to drive him crazy and discovering new ones along the way. He’s forced to pin Jensen’s hips to the bed when his nails scrape just below the waistband of his pants.

“That’s new,” he murmurs, filing it away. 

Jensen’s cock is hard enough to strain the material, firm and thick when Jared curves his hand over it. He’s desperate to see it, but when he reaches to pull the pants down, Jensen’s holding him back again.

“You’re not getting it that easily,” Jensen growls, flipping them like it’s nothing. He’s ravenous as soon as his mouth touches Jared’s skin, starting with his new favorite spot just above the collar of Jared’s shirt. Greedy hands work to strip Jared out of it, but Jared squirms away.

Jensen’s immediately wary. “What’s going on, Jared? I told you I’m sure, but if you’d rather wait–”

“No, it’s not that.” Jared shakes his head to clear the spell Jensen’s got him under.

Jensen slots their legs together, knees bumping as he rolls off to the side so he’s no longer pinning Jared down.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

Jared sighs, ducking his chin. “It’s just that you came back like this,” he says, one hand coming up to caress Jensen’s naked chest, mapping new muscle. “Compared to you, I look like crap. I barely eat, I’m afraid to sleep half the time. I exist on caffeine and work, and I can barely look at myself in the mirror without–”

“Hey, whoa.” Jensen slides his fingers along Jared’s smooth jaw and encourages him to look up. “Maybe you won’t believe me, but none of that matters. I meant what I said before–the only thing I care about is that you’re here and we get another chance.”

“Look at me,” Jared says, shifting so that he can strip his shirt off without elbowing Jensen in the face. He expects shock or disappointment, yet all he sees is Jensen’s warm smile and bright green gaze tracing the lines of his chest with unmistakable interest as if he doesn’t note the many imperfections.

When he’s looked his fill, Jensen says, “If you want me to be hands-off tonight, I’ll do it–whatever you need to feel comfortable–but please trust me when I say, _I want you_. You’re the most fucking beautiful thing in my life, and I don’t need all of my memories to know that.”

Jensen waits for Jared’s nodded permission before he wraps his arms around Jared’s waist.

“You were there for me,” Jensen adds, “now it’s my turn. Let me show you that the only thing that matters is us, together. Let the rest of it go.”

There’s absolutely no way Jared can argue in the wake of such devotion; he’s overwhelmed to the point where he’ll go crazy if Jensen doesn’t get him naked right this second.

What was a cautious and thorough exploration turns heated and frantic. Touches burn Jared’s skin, soothed by the cool drag of Jensen’s mouth down his chest. They finish stripping one another and end up pressed together from shoulders to knees, hips wasting no time falling into rhythm.

Words are no longer necessary; they move on instinct, guided by threads of knowledge and affection. Jared had missed that intimacy more than the sex. Knowing Jensen down to his core–his secrets and reactions–was an irreplaceable feeling. He’s beyond grateful that seeds of it survived the frozen years, and he’ll do anything to help them grow strong again.

The first time Jared ruts his cock against Jensen’s, he feels like he’s going to shake apart. Three years of nothing but his own hands–and even then, only on the rare occasions he felt aroused–and it’s just so fucking good. It’s as if his body is coming back to life, nerves and muscles realizing they’re meant to feel more than pain. Jensen is rebuilding him one piece at a time. It’ll take more than one night–possibly a lifetime–but this is a good place to start.

Power shifts back and forth between them. The play is familiar, each of them demanding and yielding control in equal measure. Jared feels possessive of Jensen like never before, pressing his claim with every touch, one hand around both of their cocks when he gets Jensen laid out on his back again like a peace offering. 

Looking down, Jared watches Jensen’s foreskin slip back and forth, the swollen head of his cock reappearing on each downstroke. When they first got together, Jared was fascinated by the differences between them: how Jensen was more sensitive, and how Jared turned it into a challenge to make him come from massaging his foreskin and slipping his tongue gently around the head. He can’t wait to relearn every inch of Jensen’s body, but his patience is already wearing thin and three years of celibacy has left him with no stamina.

Jared’s orgasm builds quickly. They’re barely kissing; Jared pants against Jensen’s cheek and feels his husband’s tongue teasing the corner of his mouth. Once Jensen’s hands slip down to join his, Jared can feel control slipping away. Whether Jensen’s running on instinct or memory, his fingers know exactly where to touch. Circling the base of Jared’s cock before pressing between his balls and giving a light tug to his sack. Jensen’s lips are right there to catch Jared’s moan of pleasure, and he lets go of any semblance of tempo, letting their hips grind together until Jared comes in a blinding rush.

Jensen grabs him by the back of the neck, holding him and chasing his own ecstasy. Power surges within him, making his eyes burn with a familiar green fire. The rough grip as Jensen ruts against him sends another wave of sensation through Jared’s already spent cock and leaves a pleasant ache at the base of his spine. When Jensen comes, he releases Jared who collapses beside him, sweat already beginning to cool on his skin.

They’re a mess, come on their stomachs and thighs, but Jared can’t stop grinning.

Jensen looks over, the fire banked to a warm, glowing gaze, still breathing heavily, and asks, “Was it always that good?”

Pressing himself closer to the line of Jensen’s body, Jared leans over and kisses him hard, leaving a thousand promises on his plush, pink lips.

When he finally breaks away, Jared whispers, “That was just the warm up.”

Two and a half hours and a thorough encore later, Jared is finally drifting off to sleep. His body is languid in ways he hasn’t felt in years; tonight, exhaustion pulls him gently into oblivion instead of fraying his nerves and leaving his mind spinning off-kilter.

Jensen is spooned behind him, and even though they spent the last few hours skin-to-skin, Jared can’t get enough of having him close. By the rise and fall of his chest, Jared knows Jensen is still awake.

It’s taken this long for the apprehension to unwind in Jared’s chest; here and now, he finally begins to relax. For the first time since Tahmoh broke the news, Jared feels like he’s back on stable ground, ready to start moving forward. That’s the idea that carries Jared towards sleep, his breaths coming heavy and slow.

The barest hint of sensation, a waft of air across the shell of Jared’s ear, alerts him to the fact that Jensen is whispering.

“I’m sorry I left.”

Jared hears it, and something in Jensen’s tone doesn’t feel quite right, but he’s already falling. The words follow Jared into the darkness and are lost.

In the morning, Jared is roused by Jensen climbing out of bed. He’s trying to be careful, Jared knows, but after sleeping alone for the last one thousand nights, the slightest jostle is enough to wake him up.

Blinking through the early morning light, Jared watches Jensen disappear into the bathroom and listens to the dull _whoosh_ of water through the pipes. He’s content to lie there dozing in and out until Jensen comes back, comforted by the sounds of someone else moving around his apartment. When Jensen sees that Jared is mostly awake, he stops next to the bed and looks down, a sleepy smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. Jared smiles back, but his gaze is immediately drawn lower. Like him, his husband is still naked, posed to let Jared look his fill.

Jared’s blood pumps harder.

Jensen’s stance is strong, confident. His shoulders are broader than Jared remembers, and there are new lines of definition cutting through the muscles down his chest and abdomen: side effects of the meteorite, no doubt. The weak sunlight reveals the faintest shimmer on his pale skin where Jared knows his power lines wind just below the surface, dormant for the time being.

Further down, Jared’s gaze follows the v-cut of Jensen’s oblique muscles over and along his narrow hips. Last night showed Jared that his cock still slips perfectly along that groove; he wonders if his tongue would find it equally as pleasurable, but that will have to wait. Jensen’s cock is beginning to show interest in Jared’s thorough appreciation, curved down with the head just barely peeking out past his foreskin. 

Jared wants to keep looking–he could spend an entire day on Jensen’s thick thighs–but his mouth is watering for a taste of the spread on which his eyes have feasted. He reaches out, and Jensen lets himself be pulled back onto the bed, lips cool and minty when he leans down to kiss Jared.

As morning kisses go, it’s one of the best.

Jensen fits his body over Jared like he never left, a long line of heat and unyielding strength. His kiss is sweet until it suddenly isn’t, tongue curling around Jared’s and slipping back and forth. Melting into the sheets, Jared surrenders himself in ways he couldn’t the night before, soaking up every touch. Though Jensen has been gone for over three years, his mastery over Jared’s body remains paramount–he knows how to take him apart quickly–and their cocks rise to hardness as they rock against one another.

With a grip that doesn’t ask questions, Jensen tilts Jared’s chin up, thumb pressing into his jaw, and torments him with sucking kisses down the length of his neck where Jared’s skin is pink and sensitive from the night before. His spine locks as the pleasure is routed down to his dick, which throbs in time with his pulse. Jensen works his way along Jared’s chest drawing whines and moans as he goes, teeth set to skin before his tongue soothes the hurt.

When Jensen’s mouth opens around Jared’s cock, it feels like every nerve in his body comes alive to share in the sensation. His hips shoot up almost unconsciously, and though it’s literally impossible to choke Jensen, he uses his strength to pin Jared to the bed, taking total control over his gratification.

It’s not a slow blowjob–Jensen doesn’t need to waste his time teasing, not when Jared is so primed. Jensen repeats the same move he’d used earlier while they were kissing, wrapping his tongue around Jared’s cock and swirling it up and down. His free hand pushes at Jared’s thigh, opening him further for Jensen to press between his legs. The strain in his muscles only ramps up Jared’s arousal, groaning in sheer delight as Jensen pulls up to work the head of his cock, surrounding it with warm suction before dropping back and taking the entire length without gagging. The softness of his beard stimulates the base as Jensen swallows him over and over. 

Unable to thrust and helpless at the way Jensen’s throat tightens around him, Jared throws out his hands. White knuckles on grey sheets, his entire body is tense. He looks down and watches the power move along Jensen’s skin like a current he could reach out and touch. Jensen tilts his head up, an expression of pure, filthy satisfaction on his face, and his eyes are glowing a deep, ocean green. 

With all that power and passion focused directly on him, Jared has no prayer of holding out any longer. He comes with a full body shudder, and Jensen doesn’t hesitate to swallow everything, pulling off only when Jared falls back and licking his friction-reddened lips with pride.

Three orgasms in less than ten hours means Jared is left a sated, worn-out mess, but he wants to bring Jensen the same kind of spine-shaking pleasure. His husband looks surprised when Jared shifts further against the headboard before pulling Jensen up along with him, encouraging him to straddle Jared’s torso and putting his dick within reach of Jared’s eager mouth. He probes the foreskin with a gentle tongue, recalling how sensitive the head could be, sweeping Jensen’s taste into his mouth to see if it’s the same as before.

Coaxing Jensen further past his lips, Jared gets used to the movements again, so long denied. The feel of a thick cock in his mouth is almost a comfort, and it reminds him of why this was one of his favorite ways to bring Jensen off. He keeps the rhythm slow, and though the surge of power has not yet burned itself out of Jensen’s eyes, Jared is aware that he’s holding himself in check, too, unwilling to overwhelm. Jared anticipates the day when he’ll have Jensen full-force again. Picturing Jensen fucking his mouth brings one repressed desire after another into Jared’s thoughts. He wants everything they used to have and now more, thirsty to experience what Jensen’s new abilities might mean in the bedroom.

Imagination running rampant, Jared sucks harder, fingers clawing into Jensen’s ass. The tip of Jensen’s cock flirts with the back of Jared’s throat, skin moving up and down the shaft as Jared pulls and releases. His thumbs brush across Jensen’s hole and he comes with a grunt, hips snapping forward to give Jared an even deeper taste of his semen.

“I’ve got you,” Jensen says, the first time either of them has spoken since the night before.

Jared thinks back. Did Jensen whisper something before they fell asleep? 

It’s a thread he can’t hang on to as Jensen helps him slide back down, both breathing deeply and smiling as, outside, the sun continues to rise.

Jared takes his time in the shower. The water beats down across his shoulders, breaking up the last of the tension he’s carried for several days straight. For the first time since Jensen brought them to Vancouver, Jared isn’t worried that his husband is going to disappear if he’s out of sight for a few minutes.

Scrubbing the sweat and semen from his torso and hips, he marvels at how good he feels. He’s not whole–not yet–and when he thinks inward, he can still feel the edges of the hollow in his chest, but they don’t cut the way they used to.

While he’s finishing up in the bathroom, he listens to Jensen moving around the apartment, cleaning up from their very late breakfast. Jared grins at his reflection; once his stamina recovers, a few more rounds are in the cards. It’s not like they have anywhere else to be.

Jared heads towards the kitchen after he gets dressed, stopping short when he finds Jensen peering out the living room window, mouth set in a grim line.

“Everything okay?”

It’s impossible that Jensen doesn’t hear him, so Jared waits, counting the seconds until Jensen comes back to himself and takes a deep breath.

“I felt something.”

The tension snaps back into place. Jared’s handled a lot of crazy shit in the decade since they met, but given the events of the last week, the words set him on edge.

“Are they coming for us?”

“No, it’s not that,” Jensen says, eyes fixed on something Jared can’t see. “This feels different. New. I still can’t remember everything from before I died, but this feels totally unfamiliar. It’s not something I can see or hear, it’s something I can sense.”

Jared tries to breathe through the rising panic. “It could be one of your new abilities manifesting. We have no idea what powers the meteorite gave you. What does it feel like?”

Jensen continues to stare beyond the glass, his gaze smoldering with banked power.

When Jared first discovered Jensen’s powers, he would take any excuse to watch them in action. He was fascinated by the way Jensen could tap into the inexplicable energy within him to push out with his senses, learning so much about the world around them. It was as much of a revelation as Jensen’s physical abilities, although watching Jensen move boulders or leap up onto a rooftop turned Jared on in a different way.

“It’s like a wave,” Jensen explains. “I’m standing on the shore and I can feel the water receding, trying to take me with it. Pulling me out towards something much larger.”

“Do you think we’re in danger?”

That gets Jensen to turn and look at him.

“I don’t know what it means. It could be a sign or a warning,” he admits, frustration lending a sharpness to his voice. “We need to be prepared for anything.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

Jensen’s next words fill him with apprehension and excitement at the same time.

“I think it’s time to figure out exactly what I can do.”

Those mixed feelings plague Jared throughout the rest of the day. The morning left him rattled, and though he did his best to distract himself, the uneasiness persists.

After Jensen’s episode at the window, he and Jared spent the afternoon testing Jensen’s abilities as much as they could without attracting attention from Jared’s neighbors. They began with the basics: Jensen picking up the heaviest items in the apartment and seeing how long he could hold them. Not only was it obvious that Jensen was stronger than ever–the laundry machine might as well have been a feather pillow given how easily Jensen could lift it–but Jared also found four dollars in change and an old iPod when Jensen picked up the couch as well as his spare key beneath the refrigerator. 

Cleaning had always been a lot easier when Jensen was around.

They couldn’t do much more to test Jensen’s strength, so they moved into one of the rarely used emergency stairwells at the far end of the building. Jared tried not to think about the last time he was in one of those while watching Jensen jump several stories with a single leap, catching the railing and pulling himself over. With just a fraction of his energy, Jensen could speed all the way up to the roof access door before Jared could make it to the second-floor landing. Jensen glided down, smirk on his face and the familiar flash in his eyes, and met Jared on the landing, not protesting at all when Jared hauled him into a possessive kiss against the concrete wall.

Back in the apartment, Jared got to enjoy the sight of Jensen testing his senses, studying the look of concentration on his face when he let his energy flow out. Listening to conversations several floors away still came easily, but Jensen was even able to hear someone talking on their phone while driving past Jared’s building. His sight and sense of smell seemed equally enhanced after his time in Fort Jasper’s bunker.

Now, sitting on the couch and watching Jensen’s power recede to its dormant state, Jared tries to push his anxiety to the back of his mind.

“You were powerful before,” he says as the glowing swirls fade from Jensen’s body, unable to temper the awe in his voice, “but this is crazy, Jensen. Do you feel any different?”

“I don’t know how to compare it,” Jensen admits, dropping onto the sofa next to Jared. “It feels like I’ve barely tapped into what my body can do now.”

Jared hesitates before he asks his next question, his desire to help others conflicting with his need to keep Jensen close.

“Do you want to go back to being Reactor?”

“I’ve missed three years,” he eventually says, looking uncertain. “Maybe people don’t need me anymore.”

It’s difficult to read whether or not that upsets Jensen, but Jared tells him, “That’s definitely not true. I think the world needs you more than ever. Maybe it’s not the same now as it was before,” he adds. “I mean, sure, there haven’t been any enhanced mad-men claiming to serve another world dropping in and trying to level entire cities...but things are pretty bad for a lot of people.”

“You think I can still help, though? I was never a crusader, Jared. Not like you.” Jensen takes his hand and squeezes. “I move fast and I lift heavy things, but you… I always thought you were the one who was going to save the world first.”

Jensen Ackles is the love of Jared’s life, but the depth of his feelings can still take him by surprise. Without him, Jared was withering, brown and dry like a tree stripped after the first frost of winter. Jensen’s return has nourished the small bit of life left in him, and he feels himself growing stronger every day.

Jared fits himself against Jensen’s side. He vows never to take these comfortable silences for granted ever again.

“I remember when we picked Reactor as my name.”

“You do?” Jared asks. He hasn’t thought about that in years, but the memory floats to the surface, thin around the edges yet clear in the center. 

“You came up with some terrible ideas.”

Jared smacks him on the thigh. “Your memory is still busted. My ideas were great.”

“The Green Eagle?”

“You glowed green and you could fly,” Jared huffs. On the inside, he’s grinning, listening to Jensen pick out specifics from their past. “But yeah, not one of my better ideas.”

“Green Mantis, the Human Battery?”

“Okay, so I missed the mark a few times. But it was that last one that gave us the idea for Reactor.”

As soon as the name was suggested, they’d looked at one another and smiled. The name felt right, a mantle Jensen would willingly take up. They’d gone to Tahmoh after that, and the Army man was only too happy to ‘leak’ a government memo to the press regarding the codename of the superhero who’d swooped in to save the day in a dozen cities so far.

An idea occurs to Jared.

“What if we post something anonymously about Reactor coming back?”

“I’m not even sure I can be Reactor anymore,” Jensen says. “For all we know, the meteorite could have further effects on me.”

Jared lets the idea roll around in his head. “I’m not saying you have to be back, but if we get social media speculating, leak a blurry clip or something, then Entranto can’t really come after you anymore.”

“The press would latch on pretty quickly,” Jensen muses. He still doesn’t sound thrilled. Depending on whether they hear from Tahmoh in the next few days, Jared figures he might come around. 

“It would distract everyone while we worked out the next step.”

With Jensen agreeing to at least consider the idea, they take a break from serious topics to grab something to eat. They’ll have to restock on groceries sooner rather than later–Jensen was always able to eat three times as much since his metabolism far outstripped Jared’s.

By the time their stomachs are full and the kitchen’s been cleaned up, the sun is low in the sky and Jared can feel the itch beneath his skin getting more and more persistent. Standing alone in his bedroom, he tries to sort through all the questions he has so they can figure out to deal with first.

He thinks about reaching out to Tahmoh until he remembers he can’t retrieve the blocked phone number he used to call when this whole mess started. He could text Sterling–at least he knows Jensen’s story–but his boss has the Institute to run and Jared’s absence probably left him with more work. Calling his mom or one of his siblings would mean sharing the entire saga of Jensen’s return, and Jared knows he’s not ready for that yet.

“I can hear how hard you’re thinking.”

Jared spins around and finds Jensen smiling gently.

“Seriously?”

Jensen shakes his head. “I’m kidding. Still not telepathic. Maybe that’ll be included with the next meteorite.”

A sharp inhale. “Don’t.”

“I know,” Jensen says, visibly chastised. “I’m sorry. Just wanted you to loosen up a bit, like you were this afternoon when we kissed in the stairwell.”

“I just can’t stop thinking about what comes next.”

Jensen steps closer, setting one hand around the back of Jared’s neck, the other resting on his hip.

“Neither one of us knows what’s going to happen, Jared. We’ve been through hell this week, but we’re here. We’re good. The tough stuff is behind us.”

Jared wants to believe it and, since Jensen is the one with the superpowered perception, maybe he should.

“I wish I could make you forget the last three years,” Jensen says, dropping his forehead onto Jared’s shoulder. “I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”

_I’m sorry I left._

Jared hears the whisper in his mind and pictures himself falling asleep with the words wrapped around him like a blanket.

“We’ll be okay,” Jensen promises as he meets Jared’s gaze.. “Tomorrow, we’ll make a plan to get me back into the world.”

“What about tonight?”

Jared watches the loving smile on Jensen’s face shift to something sharper and more seductive.

“Tonight, it’s my turn to explore.”

Lying together with Jensen, relaxed and satisfied, feels like a dream. Jared drifts in and out of consciousness; each time he comes to, Jensen is still holding onto him, his expression soft and carefree.

Mustering the energy to move one arm and check his phone, Jared sees it’s only nine-thirty. He could easily lie here for the rest of the night, though, after how thoroughly Jensen fulfilled his promise. His body would appreciate the chance to recover.

Jared barely had time to react before he was carried back onto the bed in a flash of green light, taking one deep breath before pleasure stole the rest away. To ensure Jensen had plenty of time to explore, he used his strength to pin Jared down and strip him quickly, pulses of power running up his arms and across his chest while he rendered Jared incoherent. Driving Jared crazy with his mouth and sucking him to a spectacular, spine-melting first orgasm.

After that high, Jared could only lie back and relish those familiar, never-forgotten touches. Jensen was free (and eager) to kiss nearly every inch of Jared’s skin. Down his throat, tongue walking the beam of his collarbone. Under Jared’s arms, lips following the veins all the way down to his wrists. Across his stomach and touching on each hip, all while Jared was too wrecked to care about how he looked in his husband’s eyes. Too fucked out to worry about his pale skin and lost muscle.

It was nothing for Jensen to flip Jared onto his stomach and launch an oral expedition down his back, mapping out new planes and angles with his lips, claiming ground with his teeth. Jensen found his own pleasure between Jared’s legs, fucking into the tight space until he coated the inside of Jared’s thighs with his come. He didn’t stop there, pressing his dick against Jared’s balls and teasing his ass with clever fingers. Trembling with need, it took less than two minutes for Jared to fall apart all over again.

Realizing that they never cleaned up, Jared winces and drags himself out of bed. Jensen grumbles, but lets him go, stretching and yawning as Jared steps into the bathroom. A few minutes later, Jensen follows him in, and they trade sleepy, satisfied smiles in the mirror.

Jared slips into a pair of comfortable pants and picks his shirt up off the floor, leaving Jensen to finish in the bathroom. Back in the kitchen, it takes two full glasses of water to quench Jared’s thirst. He feels Jensen come up behind him and turns, licking his lips at the sight of Jensen in low-slung jeans and a threadbare T-shirt he found in the spare room.

“You look like you wouldn’t mind going again,” Jensen whispers, lightly pressing his lips to Jared’s jaw.

“Wouldn’t mind trying,” Jared says, unable to keep the smile off his face, “but I think you’d be disappointed.”

“Never,” he hears, before Jensen is kissing him again. It’s gentle, as easy as breathing, and Jared loses himself in the feeling.

Jensen is a consummate kisser, dedicating himself to the task until Jared falls against him, a sigh passing between their lips. Jared is about to suggest returning to the bedroom–what the hell, he’ll give it his best shot–when Jensen goes stiff in his arms.

“What–” is all Jared can say before he hears heavy footsteps outside his front door.

Heart rate kicked into high gear, Jared looks to Jensen for any sign of what’s coming, but his husband’s eyes are wide and disbelieving. The ensuing knock shakes him from head to toe.

“What do we do? Jensen?”

Jensen opens his mouth, but whatever he’s about to say is cut off by a familiar voice calling from outside the door.

“Don’t make me knock down this door, Jared. You know I’ll do it!”

Jared drops his head to Jensen’s shoulder and curses.

“You’ve gotta be fucking _kidding_ me.”


	6. Chapter 6

  
**CHAPTER SIX**

The last place Staff Sergeant Roland Entranto expected to find himself was in Vancouver, sitting in Jared Padalecki’s living room across from the man himself and his back-from-the-dead superhero husband, seated side by side.

“You have two minutes to tell us why you’re here,” Padalecki says, his voice clipped. 

Ackles glares at Entranto with eyes that burn green.

Out of the corner of his good eye, he sees Colonel Penikett flinch.

The last twenty-four hours have felt like the longest of the staff sergeant’s life, and that’s counting his multiple tours overseas. It was hard to believe that less than a day ago, Entranto was lying half-dead on the floor of the containment room next to the lifeless body of Adam Fergus. That was where the colonel found him, barely conscious and muttering about the mistakes they had made.

Shifting carefully on the chair Padalecki pulled out for him, Entranto tries to find a comfortable position. Getting the weight off his sore legs helped, but sitting is no picnic either thanks to three broken ribs, a fractured left wrist, countless bruises and cuts, and one black eye.

Entranto is fairly certain it was his pathetic, battered appearance that convinced Padalecki to let him in when he finally opened the door. He can’t argue with the man’s distrust–Padalecki and Ackles were put through the wringer at Fort Jasper, though they seem better now. Padalecki, especially, looks healthier than the last time Entranto saw him. (Has it only been a few days since he and Ackles escaped from the bunker?) There’s color in his cheeks, a brightness in his eyes that wasn’t there before, and Entranto figures that’s all down to the man next to him.

“Start with what happened to you,” Ackles says. Positioned so that he’s between Entranto and Padalecki, his fierce expression tells Entranto that he won’t hesitate to protect his husband should there be any threat.

Entranto remembers the sight and sounds of a bulletproof window shattering at his feet and shudders.

His voice is weak when he says, “It was Dr. Chau.”

“Osric?” Padalecki scoffs. “Osric did this to you? Is this some kind of joke, Tahmoh?”

The colonel shakes his head, confirming Entranto’s word. 

“We screwed up,” Penikett admits, hanging his head. “God, Jared, I don’t even know how this happened.”

“How _what_ happened?” Ackles snarls, just as Jared asks, “Why would Osric attack you?”

“Alarms started going off,” Entranto explains, thrown back into the chaos as he relives those moments in his mind. “I rushed down to the containment lab–I thought something had happened to the meteorite. When I got there, Chau was fighting with Fergus. _Really_ fighting.”

“Adam was trying to hurt Osric?” Padalecki cuts in, Ackles remaining stone-faced beside him. “They seemed like friends.”

Entranto finds it difficult to swallow. It’s as if he can hear the hits: flesh on flesh, bones twisting and blood hitting the floor. He doesn’t realize he’s gone silent for nearly a minute until Penikett speaks softly.

“Adam is dead, Jared.”

Padalecki frowns, disbelief clear in his eyes.“Dead? You’re telling us that Osric, what? That he killed Adam? What the fuck happened down there?”

The story comes out in pieces. Entranto strings together what he remembers from watching Chau fight Fergus, the accusations the geologist made about Osric injecting himself with a substance he siphoned from the meteorite and covering up what he was doing, and the shock of seeing Chau transform into some kind of monster in front of his eyes. Some things aren’t as clear–the hits Entranto took to the head really scrambled things around–but the colonel fills in the rest and shares the gruesome scene he found when he made it down to the lab with a dozen military police officers backing him up.

“Adam was already gone,” the colonel admits, hanging his head and taking a deep breath. Bile rises to the back of Entranto’s throat when he pictures the geologist lying on the floor, those empty eyes staring at him, blaming him for not realizing what Chau was doing sooner.

“There was nothing we could do. I was afraid the sergeant was dead, too, until I saw that he was still breathing. One of the MPs was unconscious, the other nearly bled out before we could get a medical team down to the bunker.”

“Dr. Chau destroyed the lab,” Entranto says. He doesn’t want to think about how it felt to lie there, barely able to breathe past the pain in his chest, shards of glass digging into his arms, wondering if anyone was coming for him. Afraid that Chau had made it to the surface, hurting anyone in his path.

“He fled after that,” Penikett adds. “I had Corporal Jimenez try to track him, but we didn’t have any luck.”

Padalecki jumps to his feet and paces in front of the sofa, but Entranto watches Ackles. The former superhero had listened silently, jaw tight, while he and the colonel shared the shocking story of Osric Chau’s descent into madness. Entranto thinks back to the rages he’d watched Ackles suffer through in the bunker, now afraid he would see the same thing here in this apartment, but Ackles appears completely in control. Whether that’s due to being separated from the meteorite’s effects or something more intangible, he’s far from the same man Entranto observed through bulletproof glass.

It stings, thinking that he kept the wrong man in that cell. Jensen Ackles wasn’t the threat. No, they invited the real monster in through the front door.

“Chau knew our system,” Penikett is saying, watching Jared pace. “He knew how to sneak around without being noticed, concealing what he was doing.”

Padalecki stops. “Oh my god,” he gasps. “He helped me. I mean, I thought he was helping me when I–”

“When you used his badge and snuck down into the bunker,” Entranto finishes for him. “I thought it was you who’d subdued one of my men.”

“Me?” Padalecki spins to face him, eyes wide. “No, it was Osric. He took that MP down before I could even blink, and then he smiled at me like it was no big deal.”

“By then, he’d been siphoning energy from the meteorite for days.” The colonel sighs. “How the hell did I miss that?”

Entranto can’t let him shoulder that blame. Not on his own. 

“We all missed it. We were so focused on the subj–on Mr. Ackles,” he corrects quickly before Padalecki snaps at him, “that we never thought to ask what Dr. Chau was doing with the meteorite.”

“How strong is he?” Padalecki asks, moving to stand beside the couch. “I saw him take down one man, but if Osric could hold off you and your guards...if he’s capable of killing someone, then clearly he’s a threat.”

No one knows what to say to that. Three of them look to each other for answers while Ackles stares at the floor. Entranto momentarily forgets about the state of his ribs and tries to sit up straighter, but is immediately hit with a wave of pain that leaves him sick to his stomach and clenching his teeth hard enough to prevent a sob from escaping. 

The colonel looks over, yet remains seated after a sharp glance. Given the long list of injuries, Penikett wanted him to remain at Fort Jasper under supervised medical care, but Entranto wouldn’t have it. This snafu goes beyond rank; it was Entranto’s responsibility, after letting the medical team patch him up as best they could, to come here and warn Padalecki and Ackles. To admit his mistakes and hope that somehow, together, the four of them might be able to come up with a way to stop Dr. Chau from hurting anyone else.

“I have to go back.”

Ackles says it with a flat voice, eyes down until Padalecki touches him on the arm.

“Back where?” the colonel asks. “Back to Texas?”

The superhero nods, but before his husband can begin to protest, Entranto cuts him off.

“Chau fled,” he reminds them. “There’s nothing for him at the base anymore. The meteorite is dormant–we both saw that,” he adds, nodding at his fellow officer. “I left Jimenez in charge of getting the base back online and refortified, just in case. The corporal will let us know if anything happens.”

Jared turns to Penikett. “What about Em? Was she there when Osric–”

“Don’t worry, Jared. She’s safe. Emily was already gone when it happened. Good thing, too, since she took most of her research and data with her when she left. Otherwise Osric might’ve destroyed that, too.”

Padalecki draws a deep breath, then asks, “So where would he go?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ackles says before anyone can speculate pointlessly. “I’ll find him.”

“Jensen–” the colonel and Padalecki protest at the same time only to be waved off by Ackles. Entranto knows it’s concern on the colonel’s part; they’d talked this out on the jet, realizing they had no other option than to hope Reactor was willing to help them.

“It’s my responsibility.”

Entranto grimaces as the throbbing pain becomes difficult to ignore. “You’re not the only one who feels responsible.”

Padalecki is watching his husband with wide, worried eyes, and Entranto feels as if he’s intruding on something deeply personal. It’s mitigated by the strong suspicion that they’re keeping something from him and the colonel, but he doesn’t press. He turns away, the movement setting his chest on fire, and his breath rushes out of him with an agonized gasp.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Penikett insists. “You need more medical attention.”

Lacking the strength to argue, Entranto can only nod stiffly and allow the colonel to help him out of the chair.

“Anything we can do?” Padalecki offers, a hint of strain in his voice. “Do you need a place to stay?”

He watches Penikett smile at his friends–a glimpse of their old camaraderie coming to the surface. And though he’s read all the classified files, sometimes Entranto forgets just how much these three men have gone through together.

“I’m not without resources,” Penikett assures them. “We’ll be fine, and we’ll be close in case anything happens.” He takes a white card from his pocket and leaves it on the counter as he slowly maneuvers Roland towards the door. “Call if you need _anything_.” 

At the front door, Entranto squeezes the colonel’s shoulder so that he’ll pause. He looks back at the two men at the center of all this and says, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I made a mistake back in Texas–probably more than one.”

To his surprise, it’s Ackles who responds. 

“You were doing what you thought was best for the base.”

It’s not forgiveness, and Padalecki doesn’t say anything, but it’s a beginning. Entranto knows that’s the most he could hope for right now.

Penikett steadies him as he hobbles towards the elevator. It’s not until they’re inside and on their way down that the colonel says, “That went about as well as it could.”

“Think he’ll help?” Entranto mutters through clenched teeth.

Penikett sighs. “I think we’re screwed if he doesn’t.”

As soon as the door closes behind Tahmoh and Staff Sergeant Entranto, Jensen pushes up off the couch and peers out the window, his arms crossed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure,” Jensen says. Jared wonders if he’s watching Tahmoh and Entranto making their way to whatever vehicle brought them here, or if he’s waiting for something more sinister. “I think it has something to do with what I felt earlier.”

Stepping up behind him, Jared asks, “You mean that had something to do with Osric going absolutely mental?”

“I told you I felt a pull. Maybe we’re connected through the meteorite.”

Jared scoffs. “You and Osric? He’s _human_ , Jensen. He’s not like you.”

Looking back over his shoulder, Jensen says, “You heard them. We don’t know what he’s like now.”

It’s as if the ground is shifting beneath Jared’s feet again; the aftershock had hit as soon as Tahmoh walked through his door along with the bruised and broken sergeant who could barely stand without help. Listening to their ordeal felt like taking a hit to the chest, but it was nothing compared to the searing pain between Jared’s ribs when he heard Jensen insist on being the one to go after Osric.

“We don’t even know how Osric was able to draw power from the meteorite,” Jared points out. 

“He had plenty of time to figure it out.”

The words sting, and Jared wishes, more than anything, that Tahmoh hadn’t waited so long to bring him back down to Texas.

“What matters now is that he managed to do it,” Jensen is telling him. “He tapped into the same power that brought me back and made me stronger. Maybe what I felt was like a warning. Telling me that something was wrong even though I couldn’t see it.”

Reaching out, Jared pulls Jensen away from the window. He wants to see his husband’s face without having to decipher his dim reflection in the glass. Jared doesn’t let go of Jensen’s hand when they’re face to face, needing something to hold onto as the earth moves.

“Even if you’re right, it doesn’t mean you need to take responsibility for Osric or what he’s done.” He lifts Jensen’s hand to his chest, pressing it close as if Jensen can feel what he’s trying to say. “You were a prisoner to them! Entranto and Tahmoh, they’re more responsible than you could ever be.”

“Chau never would have been able to do any of this if it wasn’t for me.”

Jared shakes his head. “You didn’t give Osric this kind of power. The meteorite did this, not you.”

“You’re not this naive, Jared.” 

With his free hand, Jensen grabs the back of Jared’s neck and guides him forward until their foreheads are touching. Jared’s mind races through dozens of memories of the two of them standing together just like this, usually when one of them was about to say something the other wouldn’t want to hear.

“You can’t possibly think the impact was a coincidence.”

Jared opens his mouth to argue, but Jensen’s right. The idea has been in his head since Tahmoh started explaining everything to him on the jet. Always present but, until now, hidden behind bigger, more immediate concerns like getting Jensen away from that base or wondering if the two of them would ever be okay again.

“It came because of me. For what?” Jensen asks himself, his sigh drifting across Jared’s lips. “I have no fucking clue. Just another mystery I’ll never be able to solve, like wondering where the hell I came from in the first place.”

Jared wants to tell Jensen that it doesn’t matter. It never has, and he’s said it a hundred times in the past, but right now it’s all too much.

“Maybe I came back for this, or maybe Chau is just an accident. But I can’t do nothing.”

“We don’t even have a plan,” Jared whispers, surprised to feel that his hand is shaking in Jensen’s grip. “Even Tahmoh said they’re basically helpless until they figure out where Osric went. We know next to nothing about all this.”

“I can find him and I can stop him. Everything you said about pushing Reactor back into the world, testing my new powers...I thought you’d want me to do this. Why are you trying to stop me now?”

He’s not expecting Jensen to push away from him and disappear, leaving only a fading trail of green light in his wake and unspoken words on Jared’s lips.

The faint shimmer only leads Jared as far at the spare room. He stops at the closed door and listens, releasing the breath he was holding when he hears Jensen moving around on the other side. He hesitates, hand on the doorknob. Privacy and space have been in short supply for both of them this week, but especially for Jensen who spent every minute under observation while in the bunker. If he wants to be alone, Jared has to give him that, even if the thought scrapes at the raw edges of the still-healing wound in his chest.

Jared’s been scared since Tahmoh and Entranto sat in his living room and told them the unbelievable story of an eager, funny cosmologist somehow turning into a powerful maniac. That fear morphed into terror when he heard Jensen offer to go after Osric Chau with no plan and no backup. Worst of all, he did so with no hesitation.

Standing there, examining his feelings, Jared will admit he’s been scared from the moment he met Jensen’s gaze through bulletproof glass, accepting that his husband had returned to him.

He just got Jensen back. Losing him now is something Jared won't survive.

“You can come in, you know,” Jensen calls through the door. 

The sight awaiting Jared when he opens the door is not the one he expects. Instead of finding Jensen tense, holding back his rage while green flames flickered beneath his skin, he’s sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, surrounded by memorabilia. All around him, pieces of their former life lie scattered in no particular order: photos, articles, journals, and scraps of memory, illuminated under the dim light from the single desk lamp.

“I’ve been coming in here while you slept,” Jensen begins. “I guess I don’t need as much sleep now as I used to.”

“It’s okay,” Jared says, carefully stepping his way through the relics of their past until he can sit down beside Jensen. “This is your stuff, too.”

The piles appear random–tokens and pictures from the years they spent building their lives together–except for a stack next to Jensen’s left knee. On top, Jared sees the torn, two-month-old letter he received regarding the memorial in New Orleans. Below that, the article from the _Times-Picayune_.

“The battle isn’t entirely clear in my head,” Jensen says, his voice soft and fragile. “I know it’s been years since it happened, but it feels like it’s only been a few weeks for me. It feels so close.”

“It was terrible.” Jared keeps his voice low, knowing one wrong word could shatter the moment. “I kept losing you in the chaos. Each time you disappeared, I thought I might not find you again.”

“You always did.”

Jared closes his eyes, but that doesn’t prevent him from seeing a city crumble around him, feeling dirt and stone ground into the cuts on his hands and arms. Watching the beautiful green spirals fade from his husband’s skin as his breathing started to slow before it stopped all together.

The pressure of Jensen’s hand settling on his leg is enough to draw him back to the spare room, his eyes stinging with unshed tears when he opens them.

“I’ve never stopped having nightmares about New Orleans,” Jared whispers. “It’s like a scar inside my head.”

“Then you understand why I can’t let something like that happen again.” Jensen reaches for the _Times-Picayune_ article. “Thousands dead, a city laid to waste, and for what? Just so some asshole on a power-trip could manipulate me into joining him.”

“This is different. We don’t know what Osric wants or where he’s going.”

Jensen rolls on as if he didn’t hear Jared. “If it wasn’t for me, Chau never would have had access to the meteorite. I want to stop him before something even worse happens. I want–”

“What about us?” Jared asks before he can stop himself. “Don’t you want anything for _us_?”

Jensen closes his mouth and tilts his head; the expression on his face is not quite human. Jared always treasured little reminders like this, moments where it was obvious that Jensen Ackles was something else, and yet still Jared’s.

Seconds tick by in silence until Jared realizes that Jensen is waiting for him, his hand still warm and firm on Jared’s leg. The light from the desk lamp doesn’t cut far enough into the darkness, casting half of Jensen’s face in shadow.

“A few hours ago, you wanted to make plans for the two of us. You wanted…”

Jared trails off, fear creeping back in, only for Jensen to finish his thought.

“I want our life back,” Jensen vows, “more than anything. I want to travel with you while you take up your research again. I have no idea where I came from, but I feel like I’m _home_ when I’m by your side.”

Shifting close enough for Jared to feel the way his chest expands and contracts with each steady breath, Jensen looks him right in the eye and adds, “I can’t let anyone or anything take that away from me. I won’t. So if I can use that pull to find Dr. Chau, I’m going to do it, because I can’t lose anything else.”

Their lips are so close, it only takes a subtle movement from Jared before they’re kissing. This one isn’t about passion or sex; it’s not about reassurance or even comfort. This kiss is unyielding, full of dedication and trust as if they’re sealing a promise to one another.

“We’ll do this together, then,” Jared says when the kiss breaks.

“I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Jared responds with a tight grip on Jensen’s shoulder and a firm, “Together.”

One problem resolved, Jared realizes he has no idea where to start with Osric’s rampage and subsequent disappearing act. Sitting on the floor, he leans against Jensen, replaying everything Tahmoh and the staff sergeant told them about the scene in the containment lab, the things Adam Fergus accused Osric of before he was killed.

The more Jared thinks back, the more he counts the signs. Emily and Adam discussing how Osric rarely came out of the lab, so focused on his work. Osric himself insisting he knew the base security backwards and forwards, and admitting that he barely slept. The scene in front of the elevator and the way Osric handled the MP, not to mention how that same MP acted so dazed when Jared saw him later in the bunker. He’d never said a word about Osric assaulting him–what the hell did that mean? Did Osric’s powers include the ability to scramble thoughts and memories?

Jared shivers.

Jensen’s hand makes long strokes up and down his back; Jared uses the contact to refocus. That’s when he remembers something.

“All that time Osric was standing outside your cell, did you ever hear what he was saying?”

Jensen thinks, his brows knit together. “Pretty sure I was out cold,” he mutters, “but he was there once when I came to, staring at me from the other side of the glass.”

“Did he do anything?”

Next to him, Jared feels Jensen go stiff.

“He smiled,” Jensen tells him. “I remember Tahmoh and Emily on the other side of the glass, Entranto several times a day, and Dr. Fergus once or twice, but I don’t remember anyone else ever smiling at me.”

“Before Osric helped me get down into the bunker, he talked about using the elements in your body to create supersoldiers.”

“Seriously?”

“He told me he was kidding,” Jared says, “but what if he wasn’t? Osric said that there were a lot of possible applications for Acklinium–”

“What the fuck is Acklinium?”

“The alien element they found–Osric named it after you.” Jared frowns. “No one mentioned any of that to you?”

“I overheard a lot from Emily about an unusual element and how it was responsible for my regeneration and new powers.”

“Right. Acklinium.”

Jensen scowls and looks over. “We’re getting that changed. Fucking _Acklinium_.”

If Jared wasn’t consumed with the problems at hand, he would lean over and kiss Jensen again. He’s so full of love for this man–this version of his husband who embodies both their past and their future–that the feeling nearly bowls him over if it wasn’t for Jensen keeping him upright.

“What if the supersoldier thing wasn’t a joke,” Jared asks quickly before Jensen notices his flushed cheeks. “What if that’s what his research was about from the get-go? He turned himself into an experiment.”

“Getting himself jacked up like that just to see if it was possible?” Jensen muses. “That’s messed up.”

Jared agrees. “Exactly! I think injecting himself with whatever he siphoned from the meteorite messed with his head. Everything Osric told me made it sound like he wanted to use Acklin–I mean, the element–to advance science, not to start killing people.”

“So what does he want now?” Jensen asks. “According to Tahmoh, the meteorite’s been depleted.”

Jared fits the pieces together in his mind, stomach turning to lead when he sees the bigger picture.

“What does anyone with power want?”

There’s only one answer in Jared’s head, and Jensen gets to it first.

“More power. And if he can’t get it from the meteorite…”

“He’ll need to find another way,” Jared finishes the thought. “We just need to figure out how.”

“Maybe he won’t be able to,” Jensen says. “I mean, no one knows where I came from or how I’m able to do the things I can do. I don’t know anything about this element or how it works. Sounds like maybe Dr. Chau might be the only one who does.”

Jared’s thoughts wander back to the bunker, to all the things he heard about Jensen from the people who’d been with him since he was found standing over his own grave. Back to the moment when he saw Jensen again for the first time; the beat of his heart nearly as loud as the monitors behind him that tracked Jensen’s vitals down to the–

“ _Holy shit._ ”

The revelation brings Jared to his feet.

“Osric isn’t the only one,” he says with Jensen looking up at him. “The machines, Jensen. They were recording everything, right? All your vitals and responses. They would have taken samples and ran tests.”

It makes sense. Entranto and his team of scientists were obsessive when it came to knowing everything about Jensen’s physiology, even if they only understood a fraction of the data.

“If Osric wants more power, you’re the key to unlocking it.”

“You’re saying I’m his new meteorite?” Jensen asks, coming to his feet. “Do you think that means he’ll come here?”

Jared considers the theory, trying to put himself in Osric’s place. He keeps flashing back to the expression he saw on the cosmologist’s face when he overpowered the MP. The manic sort of glee that should have been enough to warn Jared if he wasn’t so focused on getting to Jensen at the time. It was the look of a man who would do anything to have that feeling again–it looked like _addiction_.

He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. You said it yourself, neither one of us knows how any of this is possible. Plus, I can’t imagine Osric wanting to take you on. Soldiers–human soldiers–are one thing, but you’re Reactor! He knows what you are capable of.”

Jensen looks at him through lowered lashes, a hint of softness surrounding the steel of his gaze. Fondness warms Jared from the inside; Jensen never did know how to react when Jared praised his abilities.

“Chau could still be coming here if he followed Tahmoh,” Jensen suggests. “And what about Entranto? He had access to all of that data, too.”

“But why wait?” Jared poses the question after a few seconds of thought. “Osric could have taken either one of them while he was still at the lab. Instead, he kills Adam and nearly kills Entranto.”

“Maybe neither one of them had what he needed. Tahmoh’s smart, and Entranto knows the base inside and out, but they’re both soldiers. Having the data is one thing, but knowing what it all means, and how to use it…”

“So then who–”

It hits them at the same time, and Jared looks over at Jensen with dread in his eyes. It feels as if his heart is pumping ice water through his veins when he whispers the name that should have been obvious from the beginning.

“ _Emily_.”

The medication may have taken the edge off the pain, but Roland Entranto’s body still feels like one massive contusion, and he can’t take a breath without remembering each of his three broken ribs.

Despite calling in the middle of the night, the doctor Colonel Penikett had contacted met them outside her private practice and let them in without question. Penikett quickly half-carried him to an exam room where Dr. Grace Park frowned at the number of injuries she saw.

“Rough day?” she asked, looking at Penikett with a knowing smirk.

The colonel only shrugged and replied, “You know how it goes. Can you help us out?”

“For you,” the doctor said, “whatever you need.”

Dr. Park hadn’t wasted any time getting Entranto the pain mediation he desperately needed, clinically rechecking the work the base medics had done before he and Penikett left. When she was finished, she and the colonel left the room, giving the meds a chance to kick in while Entranto got settled.

Alone and with the pain receding enough for him to think straight, Entranto’s mind circles over the chaos of the last few days. He’d known bringing Ackles back to Fort Jasper would have consequences–before the meteorite hit, they’d never even considered it as a possibility–but he never imagined anything like this would happen. He chose Osric Chau as part of his science team because he was the best and the brightest.

He wasn’t wrong; the result of Chau’s intelligence turned out to be catastrophic, instead.

As the dulling effects of the pain meds continue to spread, Entranto closes his eyes. _Only for a few minutes_ , he tells himself, shifting to get comfortable on the padded table.

When he opens his eyes again, his bag from the car is sitting one of the chairs and there’s a bottle of water set next to it. Checking his watch, he’s surprised to see that he’s been asleep for several hours.

Just then, Entranto hears a soft knock at the door before the colonel steps back into the room. Penikett is alone, but there are two paper bags in his hand and he’s changed into fresh clothing.

“Brought you something to eat.” The colonel offers him one of the bags. Inside, Entranto finds a drive-thru chicken sandwich and fries. “Feeling any better?”

“Dr. Park is good,” Entranto says, eating a few of the fries. “Efficient.”

“Grace doesn’t rattle easily,” Penikett tells him. “I’m glad she could help.”

Entranto tries to smile. “It doesn’t seem like she would’ve turned you away, Colonel.”

“She and I go way back,” Penikett offers by way of an explanation. His shoulders drop. “I think we can lose the titles, Roland. We’re not really following regs here.”

He’s right about that. Getting out of Texas wasn’t exactly protocol, but they didn’t know what else to do. Finding Ackles had seemed like the best plan at the time, and Entranto has yet to see how that’s going to work out.

“Any word from Padalecki?”

Penikett shakes his head.

Entranto is disappointed, but they can’t wait around forever. “We can’t stay here. Chau’s already a step ahead of us. Maybe we should reconsider calling for backup.”

“No,” Penikett replies quickly. “Not yet.”

Entranto’s read enough classified documents and mission reports to understand why Penikett would hesitate. However, with no word from Padalecki or Ackles, they are running out of options.

“There are people who are trained for these kinds of scenarios. At the very least, they could help us figure out where Dr. Chau might be.”

“Jensen and Jared will help us. Let them have a little time.”

The conviction in Penikett’s voice doesn’t surprise him; in fact, he wishes he had the same confidence.

Entranto reclines back on the exam table to keep the pressure off his ribs as much as possible. “All we need is Ackles.”

Penikett looks over, assessing him for an unnerving moment before. “You still don’t get it yet, do you? We need Jared as much as we need Jensen.”

“He’s not the one who can take on Dr. Chau.”

“You saw what happened in the bunker,” Penikett argues, an intensity to his expression that Entranto has never seen before. “You saw the profound effect Jared had on Jensen. The effect they have on each other. Now, I may not know what’s going to happen next, Roland, but I can tell you one thing for certain. If it wasn’t for Jared Padalecki, we wouldn’t have Reactor at all.”

Before Entranto can even begin to process that statement, Penikett pulls a vibrating cell phone out of his pocket, looking up as soon as he reads the display.

“It’s Jared.”

He watches Penikett answer and immediately say, “Whoa, Jared, you’ve got to slow down. Say that again?”

A pause while he listens. Entranto waits, and a few seconds later he sees the furrow across Penikett’s forehead get deeper.

“She went back to her facility in California,” Penikett responds. “I thought I told you that. What does Emily have to do with–”

Entranto can almost feel the air in the room turn cold as the blood drains from the other man’s face. Struggling to sit upright, he waits for Penikett to tell him what’s going on, knowing in his gut that something is very wrong. Could it be that Chau followed them up to Vancouver? Has he gone after Ackles?

“If you’re right, we have to go now. I’m going to give you an address and you’re going to meet me there as soon as possible, okay?”

Penikett listens to Jared on the other end while Entranto tries to work out what could be so urgent that they need to move out right away. Despite the way the meds are keeping the worst of the pain at bay, he’s not even sure he can stand up.

All of a sudden, Penikett snaps.

“What do you mean, why? Because I have a jet and you don’t, that’s why!”

Soft, golden sunlight spills through the oval windows as the jet races south above fields of rolling, pink clouds. The sun had just begun peeking over the horizon when the four of them took off from the small, private airfield outside Vancouver.

Jared knows there are two Air Force pilots up in the cockpit–when they boarded, he wondered if it was the same crew that flew him to Texas what feels like a lifetime ago–but he hasn’t seen them since the plane left the ground.

Across from him, Tahmoh hangs up his phone with a sigh. He’s been trying to contact Emily for nearly an hour using the jet’s wifi.

“I still can’t reach her on her personal cell,” he says, “and it’s too early for anyone to pick up at her facility.”

“Can you contact the local police?” Jared suggests. “Get someone to Emily’s place to warn her or see if she’s okay?”

“How would we explain the threat she’s under?” Entranto asks. 

Sitting behind Tahmoh, the staff sergeant looks worse than he had when he was in Jared’s apartment–the bruises on his face have purpled over the last few hours, leaving one eye dark and swollen–but he insisted on boarding the jet with them, and no one had questioned his determination.

“It’s Emily,” Jared points out, strain in his voice. “I don’t care how you have to explain it, just do it.”

To his surprise, Tahmoh nods and makes another phone call. 

Jared doesn’t realize how tense he is until he feels Jensen’s hand on his shoulder, and he melts. The two of them didn’t have much of a chance to talk before they were on their way to the airfield beyond Jensen arguing that Jared should stay behind and Jared shutting him down.

“By your side, remember?” Jared told him before they left the apartment. “It doesn’t matter how dangerous it is, I’m not letting you go alone. This is Emily we’re talking about,” he added. “There’s no way I’m staying here.”

It felt strange stepping onto this plane holding a hastily packed bag for the second time. He and Jensen had both changed in to fresh clothing before they left, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Jared couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt to lie next to Jensen, relaxed and anticipating being able to move on from this chaotic chapter in their lives.

How quickly things changed.

Jared opted for jeans, the first clean T-shirt he found in his closet, and his lucky pair of All-Stars; the shoes had set foot on four different continents in ten years. Jensen, on the other had, was more discerning, knowing there was a good chance they’d be walking into a fight. Reactor’s specially-built suit never made it out of the military hospital where his body was taken after New Orleans, so he made due with one of Jared’s compression tops and a pair of black running pants. Jared didn’t miss him swiping one of Jared’s hoodies from the closet, but he stayed quiet, smiling to himself.

He’d hesitated on their way out, staring back at his apartment with an unnameable heaviness in his stomach.

“We’re coming back,” Jensen promised, reading his mind as if the meteorite really had given him telepathic abilities. “Now let’s go and help our friend.”

Jared comes out of his daze when Tahmoh sets his phone down again.

“I called in a favor and got a buddy of mine from the FBI to swing by Emily’s place and see if everything’s okay. If she’s there, he can take her somewhere secure.”

“Is it someone she’ll know to trust?” Jensen asks.

“I gave him a code-phrase she’ll recognize, don’t worry.”

Something occurs to Jared. “There’s been no word on Osric’s whereabouts? Nothing strange popping up on social media or anything? Did you issue any kind of BOLO?”

Entranto leans forward. “I’ve had Jimenez checking everything we’ve got access to. Dr. Chau is laying low, most likely because he doesn’t want to risk us finding him before he makes his move.” He sighs, adjusting his position as if his ribs are beginning to ache. “We were trying to keep law enforcement out of the situation in case someone tried to engage him. The risk of someone getting hurt is too high.”

“He’s got a massive head start,” Jared points out.

“Wait,” Jensen cuts in, “do we know if he can fly?”

Tahmoh shakes his head. “From the small amount of footage we were able to access after he destroyed the lab, he didn’t fly away from the base.”

Jared looks over at Jensen before asking, “So how did he get away?”

“He seriously injured two officers manning the gate and stole a vehicle,” Entranto says.

“Unless he developed the ability to fly overnight, he’d need at least a day to get to Emily if he was driving,” Tahmoh concludes. “Maybe not so big of a head start, then.”

“We need all the help we can get,” Entranto mutters.

“My buddy said he’ll have a car waiting for us when we land,” Tahmoh offers. “We don’t want to waste any time.”

His phone rings, cutting off anything else he was going to tell them. Jared tries to listen to the conversation, but Jensen’s hand encourages him to swivel his chair around so that they’re facing one another.

“You okay?”

Jared rubs his eyes. He could use an hour or two of sleep before they touch down, but he knows that’ll be impossible.

“I just want to make sure Em’s okay. I feel like this is all my fault.”

“Which is crazy, I keep telling you,” Jensen reassures him, sliding closer to the edge of his seat so that their thighs are pressed together. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. The meteorite–”

Jared grabs Jensen’s hand and squeezes. “We’re both crazy, then. Let’s just focus on keeping her safe, okay?”

Holding his husband’s hand, Jared tries to keep himself from panicking. When he looks over, Tahmoh is still speaking quietly on the phone and Entranto is gazing out the window, his mind on something none of them can see.

“Hey, Jared?” Jensen begins hesitantly, keeping his voice low to give them as much privacy as possible. “I don’t know if I’ll have time to do this once we land.”

Jared tries to read his expression, but all he can decipher is warmth and nervousness.

“Do what?”

Instead of answering, Jensen reaches into the pocket of his borrowed hoodie with his free hand and pulls something out. He keeps his fist closed so that Jared can’t see what he’s holding.

“We said a lot of things last night,” Jensen says, setting his closed fist next to their joined hands. “Moving forward, getting our lives back.”

“Facing things like this together,” Jared adds. “I remember.”

“I just want you to know that I meant every word. You’re my home, Jared. Even if I never remember everything from our past, nothing is ever going to take that feeling away from me, okay?”

Jared’s breath feels cold when he exhales, asking, “Why are you saying this now, Jensen?”

Jensen looks down at their hands, and Jared’s gaze follows. When Jensen opens his fist, Jared is suddenly filled with warm, white light. It’s cleansing, as if every hurt he’s suffered over the last three years has been inexplicably healed, and the next breath he takes feels better than the millions he’s taken before this moment.

Lying in Jensen’s cupped palm are their wedding bands, the two gold rings that have been sitting in a dish beside Jared’s bed for over three years.

“How–why?” he stammers, desperate for a way to convey what he’s feeling.

“I don’t want to get off this plane without you knowing that I’m not going anywhere.”

He takes Jared’s ring and slips it into place on his left hand. Shaking, Jared takes the remaining ring and mirrors the action, holding onto Jensen’s hand so tight, he can feel the gold band leaving an imprint in his skin.

“I love you,” Jensen whispers, leaning so close that he’s practically in Jared’s lap. “And like you said, I hope someday you’ll love this version of me, too.”

“Already do.” Jared wonders why his lips taste like salt until Jensen wipes the tears from his cheeks. “Just promise me we’ll be okay. That nothing’s gonna happen to you.”

Jensen smiles, and his eyes are glowing a shade of green Jared has never seen before.

“As I see it, we just got married again. There’s no way I’m missing our second honeymoon.”

The kiss that follows is full of love and unspoken vows. It’s something they can build on, and Jared intends to start doing just that as soon as this is all over.

They break apart at the sound of Tahmoh clearing his throat. The colonel is watching them with a tender smile that isn’t quite enough to obscure the fear in his eyes. In the chair beside him, Entranto is looking down at his lap, but there’s a hint of a grin at the corner of his mouth.

“I hate to interrupt, _seriously_ ,” Tahmoh says, “but that was my FBI contact. He didn’t find Emily at her home.”

Entranto glances up. “Was there any sign Dr. Chau had been there?”

“He didn’t see anything suspicious, but he wouldn’t know exactly what to look for, either. He’s heading over to check out the LifeSys compound now and he’ll let me know what he finds.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jared asks, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe the wetness off his face. He can’t help being upset that his moment with Jensen was cut short; there is so much more he wanted to tell his husband.

Jensen, who hasn’t let go of Jared’s hand, says, “We need to know what we’re walking into. If Chau’s not there, we need to rethink our theory.”

“We should be on the ground in half an hour,” Entranto remarks after checking his watch. “Hopefully we’ll know more by then.”

As if by silent agreement, the four of them leave it at that. There’s not much they can do while they’re still 20,000 feet above the ground.

Jared spends the remainder of the flight staring across at Jensen, wondering what the rest of their life together is going to look like. Whether Reactor re-emerges to become a hero again, or if Jensen decides he wants to stay off the radar as long as he can. Jared realizes that it doesn’t matter as long as they shape the future together. The ring on his finger, finally back where it belongs, tells him all he needs to know right now.

When Jensen catches him staring, he smiles and taps his fingers against Jared’s legs.

Twenty minutes later, the jet begins to descend, and Jared can feel the nerves begin to set in. As the runway comes into view below them, Tahmoh’s phone rings. Even over the roar of the jet engines, the sound sets Jared on edge.

Tahmoh listens to his FBI contact for a few seconds before closing his eyes, worry adding lines to the strong planes of his face, and Jared knows the news can’t be good.

“What is it?”

Tahmoh hangs up the phone.

“My contact just got to LifeSys,” he says, the air in the cabin suddenly thick with fear and tension. “Chau is already there.”


	7. Chapter 7

  
**PART SEVEN**

The jet touches down in northern California at 7:06 am. Jared watches as Jensen steps outside then just as quickly stops, his shoulders stiff with tension.

“I can feel him,” Jensen says, frowning. “Osric’s using his powers.”

Standing beside him on the tarmac, Jared looks over at Tahmoh. As they were landing, Corporal Jimenez finally made contact to inform them that she’d gotten some of the surveillance feeds back up and running at the base. She’s been feeding live satellite images of the area around the LifeSys Foundation’s compound to Tahmoh’s hi-tech silver tablet, giving them a bird’s-eye view.

“Can you see anything yet?”

“Nothing on the satmap,” Tahmoh says, fingers tapping at the screen to zoom in. “Good thing it’s too early for most people to be there. I count only six cars in the lot.”

“We already know he’s there,” Jensen reminds them. “We can’t waste any more time.”

Behind them, Entranto is making his way off the plane, taking each step carefully. “We need to think about containing this, too,” he says. “If we rush in, there could be consequences.”

Jared can tell Jensen is about to start arguing when Tahmoh intercedes.

“My buddy is keeping it quiet, but he’s got agents set up along the roads leading to LifeSys. They’ll be turning people away with a story about Homeland Security training exercises being conducted in the area.”

“This is our chance,” Jared insists. “If Osric has gotten to Emily...if he’s able to escape with her, there’s no telling what could happen or when we’d get another chance like this.”

“We need to go now.” Jensen’s tone leaves no room for discussion.

“Look.” Tahmoh points towards the hangar where a black SUV is waiting, an agent in a black suit standing beside it. “That’s our ride.”

He and the staff sergeant begin making for the fed’s vehicle. Rather than follow, Jensen shakes his head and looks up at the swiftly brightening sky.

“There’s no time. I can still feel Osric.”

With a sinking feeling, Jared realizes what Jensen’s about to do. Throwing all caution to the wind, he closes the space between them with two long strides and wraps his arms around Jensen’s shoulders.

“Together, remember?” he says, looking Jensen right in the eyes where his power is already coming to the surface, luminous green beginning to overtake his irises.

He can see the moment Jensen decides not to resist, determination setting his mouth in a firm line as he adjusts his hold on Jared. 

“Meet us there!” is all Jared has time to shout before Jensen lifts them off the ground.

It happens quickly, neon energy surrounding them as the jet and the hangar disappear from view. They’re moving so fast, the wind stings Jared’s eyes, and he tucks his chin against Jensen’s chest so that he’s only looking down. From Tahmoh’s satellite feed, Jared knows exactly what to look for, though he has a suspicion Jensen is being drawn to LifeSys by a force beyond Jared’s comprehension.

The FBI’s barricade won’t stop them–nothing will. Jared focuses on the plan of getting to Emily as quickly as possible. He’s not sure what it’ll take to prevent Osric from causing more harm, but he has faith in Jensen. In Tahmoh’s level-headedness and Entranto’s dedication to this mission, too.

“There!” Jared shouts when he recognizes the Foundation’s main building below.

Without a word, Jensen takes them down, never once compromising his hold on Jared.

It’s eerily quiet when they land on a patch of manicured grass twenty yards from the modern-looking steel and tempered glass structure.

“Tahmoh’s contact witnessed Osric going in,” Jared says, adjusting to the feeling of being back on the ground. “They must still be inside.”

Jensen heads for the door only to be halted by Jared refusing to let go of his hand.

“It’s okay, Jared. I can handle this.”

“The FBI is involved and there might be other people in that building,” Jared reminds him. “Someone is bound to see you and put two and two together. I thought you weren’t ready to be Reactor again.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

Jensen steps towards him until Jared can feel the heat coming from the power radiating off Jensen’s body, trails of green on his hands and neck.

“I’m not Reactor right now,” Jensen whispers. “I’m trying to help someone we both care about, that’s all. You have to let me go in there, Jared.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No!” Jensen’s eyes suddenly are blazing rings of verdant fire. “I can only do this if I know you’re safe out here. If I find anyone inside, I’m gonna send them your way, okay? Leave Chau to me. I mean it, don’t try to fight him.”

“Jensen–”

He doesn’t get farther than that before Jensen presses a firm kiss to his lips. Jared wishes the moment could go on forever, but Jensen is already pulling away.

Helpless, Jared watches him walk towards the building. Halfway there, he pauses and looks back over his shoulder.

“When this is over, we’re having a serious talk about Argentina.”

The sound that comes out of Jared’s mouth is half-sob, half-laugh, two contrasting emotions caught in his throat. Jensen disappears through the front doors, leaving him completely alone.

The next sixty seconds tick by at an agonizingly slow pace. Remaining true to his word, Jared waits with his phone in hand, trying to stay calm. He needs to be ready for anything, whether it’s the FBI showing up, Tahmoh finally making it to the scene, or worse.

The longer he waits with no sign and no contact, it becomes harder for Jared to honor Jensen’s conditions. The last time they stepped into battle together, only one came out. Every minute brings a new fear, until Jared is pacing back and forth, his steps bringing him closer and closer to the front doors.

What if Osric’s gotten stronger? What if there are hostages? What if someone is already hurt and can’t make it outside?

He’s standing five yards from the door when he feels the first tremor beneath his feet. It’s enough to throw him off balance, and he spins around, looking for any sign of what caused the ground to move. In his mind, he hears Tahmoh’s description of the seismic events in Texas that preceded the convoy’s discovery of Jensen on the hillside.

Jared is suddenly afraid that this was only a foreshock to something much, much worse.

There is no silent debate. Jared doesn’t question the impulse that sends him running through the front doors. He’s barely made it two steps into the open, modern reception area when he feels another tremor, this one vibrating the glass panels around him, creating a sound that slices right through his eardrums.

When it stops a few seconds later, Jared hears a different noise, one that jacks up his heart rate.

Footsteps running towards him. No, not running. Stumbling.

Jared has no time to hide before two people push through a set of doors at the far end of reception. They’re almost as surprised to find Jared standing there as he is to see them.

The woman is wearing jeans and a lab coat with LifeSys’ logo embroidered on the chest, her thick, gray hair pinned in a neat knot. She’s supporting a man in his early forties wearing a collared shirt, tie, and tailored pants, helping him cross the black granite floor because it’s clear there’s something wrong with his leg. The closer they get, the more injuries Jared notes: scrapes on the woman’s face, tears in her coat. The man is breathing hard, in obvious pain as he tries not to move too quickly.

Somewhere in this building, Jensen must have found Osric by now. Jared is torn–fear pulls him in one direction while duty tells him to stay and offer help. He knows what Jensen would say, and that’s the thought that keeps him from running away.

“Help is coming!” he calls out. “If you can get outside, someone’s gonna be there soon.”

The woman looks at Jared like he’s crazy while the man seems unable to process what he’s hearing, sheer agony on a face already damp with sweat.

“What happened?” Jared asks, switching tactics. “What did you see in there?”

It’s only when Jared steps up to take some of the man’s weight that the woman in the lab coat decides to start talking.

“You need to get out of here,” she tells him. “I don’t know what the hell is going on! One minute I’m in my lab, the next, this _psycho_ is there, dragging me out and asking for-.”

“Emily Swallow?”

“Yes.” Her brown eyes narrow. “How’d you know?”

“Is she okay? Did he find her?”

She hesitates. Between them, the man is glassy-eyed and groaning, almost delirious from the pain.

“My name’s Jared,” he says, needing this woman to trust him. “I promise I’m only here to help.”

“Moira,” she introduces herself. “The psycho pulled me into the conference room. Leo was there, but the guy had already–”

She nods towards his leg; it’s clearly broken, twisted at an awkward angle like someone tried to _wrench_ it off his body. They’re running out of time before the man loses consciousness altogether.

“It was really bad. I tried to help him as much as I could.”

“You’re a doctor?”

Moira frowns. “I’m a chemist.”

Leo’s standing leg gives out. They almost lose him before Jared takes even more of his weight.

“Then what happened?” Jared has to press her.

“Dr. Swallow rushed in! Maybe she heard Leo’s screams, I don’t know. The way the psycho looked at her–his eyes got all dark and smoky.”

Frantic now, words pour of Moira’s mouth, pumped by nerves and adrenaline.

“It was like they knew each other–Dr. Swallow seemed shocked to see him. She tried to come over and help me with Leo, but the guy grabbed her first. He just kept yelling at her!”

“What did he say?”

“I–I’m not sure. It was crazy, and I didn’t understand most of it. Something about an element I’d never even heard of. He demanded to know about samples she’d taken, but Dr. Swallow insisted that he was wrong, that it wasn’t what he thought. And then–then…”

“What? What happened?”

She looks right at Jared, disbelief all over her face. “This other man appeared. I mean it! One second it was the four of us, then _boom_! There was a flash of light, and he was suddenly standing there between us.”

When Jensen tapped into his power, he could move unthinkably fast; it was almost as if he could disappear on the spot and reappear somewhere else. Jared has seen it many times.

“He told us to go,” Moira adds. “I wanted to stay and wait for Dr. Swallow, but that psycho wouldn’t let her go. She looked right at me and told me it was okay, that I needed to get Leo out of there. The other guy, the one with the green eyes, said we’d find help.”

As she judges Jared with her gaze, he can feel her unspoken question: _I guess he was talking about you?_

“I swear, more help is coming,” he says, “and the FBI is close by for–”

“The FBI?” She laughs, the sound bitter and laced with mania. “What the hell are we in the middle of? I mean, the man who appeared, he kind of looked like that superhero who died–”

Leo is suddenly shaking in their grip, unresponsive when Jared tries yelling his name. 

“He’s going into shock!” Moira shouts, helping Jared lay him across one of the lobby’s many benches and removing her lab coat to wrap it over his torso.

They’ve no sooner gotten Leo down than another tremor threatens to rock them off their feet.

“I felt that before, after I got Leo out of the conference room.”

The words are barely out of her mouth before the granite beneath them in shifting again, and Jared knows he’s out of time.

“I need to go! I’m sorry, I–”

“Go,” Moira insists. “I think I hear sirens.”

Sure enough, the distant sound carries into the lobby. Tahmoh and Entranto must have made sure help would get to the scene. Hopefully they’re not far away; Leo doesn’t look like he’ll make it much longer.

“Get out of the building as soon as you can,” Jared warns, already stepping back, knowing the full range of Jensen’s abilities, not to mention the unknown of Osric’s destructive volatility. “If I find anyone else, I’ll send them out, too!”

Jared doesn’t know where he’s going, but all he needs to do is follow the tremors as they get stronger. He doesn’t know if it’s Jensen or Osric causing them, or both; he _does_ know that if either one of them is using enough power to cause the building to quake, that can’t mean anything good.

When Jared turns the next corner, he finally hears voices. The sounds draw him further into the building. Another turn and he sees a large atrium up ahead. The open space dominates the interior of the Foundation’s architectural footprint, five stories reaching up to a glass and steel framework ceiling that lets soft daylight fill the massive space. Open hallways surround the atrium, looking down on plants and potted indoor trees, tables, and benches for the think tank's many employees. In the far corner, a wide spiral staircase with a shining, chrome banister circles all the way up to the fifth floor.

The atrium floor, however, is full of debris: benches broken in half, dirt spilled out and tracked away from upturned pots, tables thrown clear across the wide space. Massive pieces of the poured concrete floor have been ripped up; broken chunks lie all around. There’s a substantial dent in the chrome banister halfway up the staircase, and part of the third floor balcony wall has been ripped away.

This is where they’ve been fighting; this is the source of the tremors.

And there, standing in the center of the atrium, is Jensen. The relief of seeing him, even though they’ve been apart for less than fifteen minutes, comes swiftly when their eyes meet. It evaporates just as fast when he sees that Jensen isn’t alone.

“Jared!”

The glee in Osric Chau’s voice takes Jared by surprise.

“Now it’s a party! You didn’t tell me your husband was gonna join us,” Osric says, looking at Jensen.

Moira was right about his eyes. Unlike the fierce, glowing green flames when Jensen uses his powers, Osric’s eyes are black mixed with a swirling, icy blue. It’s like staring into deep, frigid waters, and there’s something that looks like smokey ash staining the skin above and below. There’s no light, no humanity, left.

He’s wearing all black tac-gear, no doubt something else he stole from Fort Jasper. It’s as if he’s set for battle, and Jared has a feeling he won’t go down without a fight.

“Get out of here, Jared!” Jensen shouts, but Jared is rooted to the spot as he struggles to take in the scene around him.

“No, Jared, you definitely need to stay for this.”

“Whatever you’re looking for, Osric, it’s not here,” Jared says, willing his voice to remain steady even as his hands shake. It’s the smell of cracked stone and broken metal filling his lungs, sending him back three years.

He looks up and sees Emily crouched behind Osric, one of her arms caught between two pieces of metal effectively pinning her in place. Jared knows he needs to stay in the here and now if he’s going to be able to help anyone.

“Oh, it’s here,” Osric taunts, glancing over his shoulder at Emily. “You want to tell them, Dr. Swallow, or do I get the honors?”

“Enough!” Jensen’s voice reverberates through the atrium.

It’s like a kick in the chest to see him using his full powers again. Unlike when he broke them out of the bunker or when he was practicing in Jared’s apartment, Jensen’s drawing on his deep reserve of power. His arms are wrapped in green flames, his eyes all but consumed with the light. Standing there, he looks more imposing than Jared’s ever seen–there’s no telling how much stronger he is now, thanks to the meteorite.

Emily speaks up, hair wild around her face where it’s been pulled from her ponytail. Beyond her arm being trapped, she looks relatively unharmed.

“I already told you, Osric, what you want isn’t possible.”

Osric bares his teeth. “Look at me! Does this _look_ impossible to you?”

“It’s not stable!” she beseeches. “You need to let me help you.”

Jared feels like he’s missing half the pieces to this puzzle. Osric is acting like he’s got the upperhand even though Jensen is more powerful, given what Jared has seen him do. He watches Osric step back towards Emily, putting pressure on the piece of metal keeping her trapped.

“I do want your help,” he reminds her. “I want _more_.”

“She already told you that’s impossible!” Jensen snarls, inching closer as Emily’s face scrunches in pain. “Listen to her, Chau. This doesn’t have to end like this.”

“It’s not going to end! If Dr. Swallow gives me what I need, I could show you. I just need access to her research–”

“She can’t help you become a supersoldier,” Jared cuts in, more and more afraid that the situation is spiraling. If he can stall long enough for Tahmoh to show up with reinforcements, this might end without anyone else getting hurt. “All she has are medical records and samples. Unlike you, Emily wasn’t experimenting with powers beyond her control!”

“Jared.”

He hears Jensen say his name at the same time Emily looks up at him with wide eyes. Osric appears delighted.

“You thought I was the only one running experiments on the side?” he laughs. “I wasn’t even getting paid extra for mine. Don’t be naive, Jared. Dr. Swallow here wanted Acklinium as badly as I did. However, unlike me, she was allowed to leave and bring it back to her government-funded think tank!”

“I was trying to help people–”

Osric’s roar drowns her out. “So am I!”

The sound echoes through the atrium and shakes Jared to his core. Jensen steps closer, and Jared’s heart rate ticks down a notch.

“Listen to me,” Emily is saying, “the element is unstable. If you stop now, I think I can help you. With Jensen here, it might be possible to reverse the damage.”

“Nice try,” Osric growls, “but I know what you've been doing here. Why aren’t you guys going after her, too, huh? If I’m such a threat…”

“Emily hasn’t hurt anyone,” Jared points out. “You killed Adam and left dozens of soldiers seriously injured.”

“Adam’s dead?” Emily’s voice trembles and she doubles her efforts to free her arm. Jared tries to inch closer, but stops at the nearly imperceptible shake of Jensen’s head.

“He caught Osric injecting himself with a substance he siphoned from the meteorite and tried to stop him.”

Osric shrugs. “That was his fault. I would’ve gotten away clean if it wasn’t for him triggering the containment alarm. Especially since Reactor was already out of the picture, thanks to Jared. I never would’ve been able to engineer that ‘escape’ on my own, but I knew you’d find a way to get him off the base so that I could finish my work.”

The realization that he’d been used to further Osric’s mad goals burns deep in Jared’s chest. At the time, he’d been desperate and full of grief and shame, blind to the cosmologist’s ulterior motives.

Jensen must sense his turmoil. “It wasn’t your fault, Jared. I should’ve known–I should’ve felt what he was doing.”

“You couldn’t know,” Emily adds, “not with how the meteorite was affecting your system.”

There’s plenty of guilt to go around; blaming themselves won’t stop Osric now.

“Bottom line? You all suck,” Osric taunts. “I thought you guys would support what I was doing once you saw the bigger picture. Especially you, Jared.”

“No way I’m helping you again.”

“Not even if it meant that your husband wouldn’t be fighting on his own? Don’t you get it?” He points at Jensen. “He’s not enough anymore! It’s been years–no one else like him is coming to help Earth out. So why not look closer to home? Why not use Acklinium to create new heroes?”

For Jared, Osric adds, “Wouldn’t it be better if Reactor didn’t have to fight alone?”

Before Jared can even consider the idea, he hears Jensen’s deep, confident voice say the three words he never knew he was longing to hear.

“I’m not alone.”

Through the burning green, Jared feels the weight of Jensen’s gaze on him. Returning the stare, he wordlessly tries to tell Jensen that they need to shut Osric down before anyone else shows up and they lose control (and give Osric more people to hurt).

Osric groans. “Ugh, married people are the worst. Right, Doc?”

But Emily isn’t listening; she’d been using his distraction to continue attempting to free herself. When Osric turns and notices what she’s doing, he rolls his eyes and grabs her free arm.

“Just give me everything you have on the element and I’ll let you go.”

“It won’t matter,” she spits, “it’s all useless.”

Dropping all pretense of this being a game to him, Osric fumes. There’s a shroud hanging around him, as if a dark cloud has passed over the sun despite the rest of the atrium remaining bright.

“ _Show me before I–_ ”

Half of a bench hits him in the face before he can finish screaming his threat. When Jared looks over, there’s a satisfied smirk on Jensen’s face.

“What?” his husband asks. “He was getting really annoying.”

The impact was strong enough to knock Osric back five yards. Jared immediately rushes to Emily’s side to help her free her trapped arm. Together, they manage to lift the metal enough to pull her free.

“Something’s broken,” she mutters, cursing under her breath and clutching her arm to her chest. “Otherwise, I’m fine.”

Jensen stalks forward, his blazing eyes never leaving Osric’s sprawled form.

“Both of you, get out of here,” he orders.

“Jensen, no.”

“I said _go_ , Jared. Make sure Emily is safe.”

Jared protests, “I’m not going anywhere,” at the same time Emily says, “I can take care of myself.”

“Fine!” A burst of green follows as he throws his arms up in the air. “Emily, get Jared out of here and make sure _he’s_ safe!”

Jared doesn’t appreciate that, either, but Emily already has him by the arm, dragging towards the edge of the atrium.

“Wait, Jensen!”

His husband is now focused on Osric staggering to his feet and brushing debris from his hands. Jared can only watch as Osric grins like a demon and picks up a hunk of concrete floor lying nearby.

“Neat trick,” Osric sneers. “I’ve got a few, too.”

He throws the piece of floor harder than any human should be able to, yet Jensen deflects it with his arm, his inherent energy surrounding and protecting him.

“I need to learn that move,” Osric grumbles while dodging a concrete block aimed at his own head.

Convinced that Jensen is holding his own, Jared finally allows Emily to pull him out of the atrium and back towards reception.

“Hey man! That was a _tree_!” is the last thing he hears Osric yell before they turn another corner and the voices are gone.

Emily knows the building a lot better than Jared, so she leads them quickly through the halls. It’s not long, however, before Jared’s curiosity at everything he overheard wins out, and he has to ask:

“Were you really running experiments on Jensen?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“I think either the military or this place paid you to research potential applications for the element found in the meteorite and Jensen’s body.”

Emily stops in the middle of a hallway and mutters, “Okay, so it’s sort of what you think. But that doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that it didn’t–”

“What were you hoping to find?”

Whatever she sees on his face is enough to keep her from getting angry at the interruption. She relents with a sigh, walking a step ahead of Jared as they continue down the wide hallway.

“You know about Jensen’s rages, right?” When he nods, she goes on, “In the first couple of days, he would injure himself trying to break things in his room, but he healed in seconds. Well, I wasn’t the only one who thought there might be a way to use the element to heal catastrophic injuries, or heal them enough so that the wounded individual would have time to receive medical treatment.”

“You’re talking about battlefield injuries, aren’t you?” Jared asks.

“That was the idea, yeah. But it doesn’t matter, because like I was trying to tell you, it didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t possible. Seeing Osric here only confirmed my theory.”

“What theory?”

Emily directs Jared to the left; he’s starting to recognize parts of the building he came through a few minutes earlier.

“The element might be in Osric’s body right now, but it’s not a part of him. It’s unstable, and it’s made him unstable, too.”

“You’re saying all that–Osric attacking the base and coming here with a mission–is because the meteorite made him crazy?”

“Not entirely,” she says. “He decided to experiment with the meteorite in order to see what the element might be able to do, the same thought I had, but I wasn’t _injecting myself_ with it.”

A shiver runs down Jared’s spine. “What about Jensen?” he asks. “Is the element stable in him?”

“I think you already know the answer to that.”

She’s right, of course. Ever since he and Jensen landed in Vancouver, his husband had been getting better. Remembering things, becoming more like his old self, and getting stronger.

“The element isn’t from Earth,” Emily reminds him, “and neither is Jensen. It’s a part of him, and I don’t think it could ever harm him. Just the opposite, actually.”

There’s so much more he wants to ask, so many doors opening in his mind, but when he looks up, they’re walking into the reception area. And coming through the front doors ahead of them are Tahmoh and Staff Sergeant Entranto, matching expressions of relief on their faces. Both men are armed, holsters on their belts, and they’re wearing bulletproof vests with FBI printed on the the front in white block lettering.

As soon as Emily and Jared make it to the front doors, she looks Entranto up and down.

“What happened to you? It doesn’t even look like you should be standing right now?”

“Nice to see you, too, Dr. Swallow,” Entranto says, a smile threatening to break the hard set of his mouth. It’s the first time Jared’s ever heard anything resembling affection in his voice. “Glad you’re okay.”

“Her arm’s broken,” Jared points out.

“And I’m okay,” she reiterates.

“We should get outside,” Tahmoh suggests. His words are punctuated by a small tremor, and the four of them file through the doors until they’re back in the early morning California air. “It was quiet up until a couple minutes ago.”

“When did you get here?”

Entranto checks his watch. At his side, Emily is looking over his facial injuries with a not-entirely clinical eye. “About ten minutes ago. We found several employees coming outside when we pulled up.”

“The FBI already had paramedics on standby who came up and took care of the minor injuries,” Tahmoh says. “Two had to be transported by ambulance. The other employees were moved back beyond the perimeter and, as far as we know, no other employees are left in the building.”

Entranto nods towards the road. “We should go and get you checked out, Doctor.”

“I’m not leaving yet,” Emily insists, keeping her left arm close to her chest. Jared imagines she’s in pain but, like Entranto, she’s ignoring it for a reason.

“What’s the situation inside?” Tahmoh asks, staring back at LifeSys’ headquarters.

“It’s just Jensen and Osric in the atrium,” Jared tells them. “Jensen told us to get out of there–I think he felt he could handle Osric on his own once the building was clear.”

“Handle Chau?” Entranto questions. “What’s that supposed to mean? Does he plan on subduing him, or worse?”

A _boom_ can be heard from somewhere deep inside the building; the fight must have escalated. Jared can’t help picturing the rest of the spiral staircase being demolished.

Desperate to end this ordeal, Jared suddenly remembers something Emily said while they were in the atrium.

“When you were trapped, you told Osric there was a way to help him.” Jared hesitates before adding, “You said you needed Jensen to do it.”

All eyes turn to Emily, and she sighs.

“It’s just a theory I’ve got,” she explains in a rush. “I told Jared that the element isn’t stable in Osric’s body, and I think there might be a way for Jensen to draw it out.”

Entranto frowns, one hand settling over his broken ribs, like he’s reminded of what Chau did to him back at Fort Jasper. “You’re thinking there’s a way to save him.”

“That’s the goal, right?” Tahmoh looks between all three of them. “If he doesn’t have powers, we could easily contain him, and he won’t be able to hurt anyone else. How would we do it?”

“Again, just a theory. As far as we know, Osric’s power was meant for Jensen in the first place. He might be able to use his own power to ‘drain’ Osric, for lack of a better word.”

Jared’s heart skips a beat. _Use his own power_. It sounds so much like the plan they had in New Orleans: Jensen breathless in front of him, ready to sacrifice himself for others to survive.

“Jared? Jared!”

He refocuses and finds Tahmoh watching him with a soft, knowing gaze, as if he knows exactly where Jared’s mind went.

“She doesn’t mean like _that_.”

“If we can contain Chau somehow, can you tell Jensen what he needs to do?” Entranto asks.

Emily nods. “His power should do it on its own, once he focuses. Osric is unstable enough, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Again, in theory.”

“Then we go in quietly.” Tahmoh quickly lays out the plan: “Get to the atrium, tell Jensen what we need. Maybe he subdues Osric, or maybe we get a shot off–”

They don’t get to hear the rest of his plan as another rumble hits the area. Unlike the previous quakes, this tremor grows stronger. It crescendos into the violent sounds of glass breaking and steel snapping as Jensen comes flying through the side of the LifeSys building. 

Jensen drops something large, and Jared’s stomach turns when he sees that it’s Osric, who lands in a pile of glass shards and metal debris on the ground twenty yards away from them. Above the scene, Jensen hovers in mid-air, his body wrapped in luminous green wisps of power.

No one moves. Tahmoh, Entranto, and Emily are staring at Osric’s motionless form while Jared watches Jensen. There’s no emotion on his husband’s face and, for a moment, Jared is relieved. If Osric is dead, then this nightmare will be over.

Of course, that’s when they hear a groan from the pile.

In a flash, both Army officers draw their guns and cautiously step closer, Entranto flinching as the move twists his ribs. Jared finds himself following, trying to get a better look as Osric struggles to pick his head up and look around. The cosmologist’s eyes are still black and swirling, and there’s a pained, lopsided smile on his face when he sees everyone watching him.

“Oh good,” Osric mutters, “an audience.”

“Everyone get back,” Jensen orders, his voice deep and thunderous.

“Osric, listen.” Jared tries to remain calm as he moves forward. “This doesn’t have to end badly. Emily thinks there might be a way to draw the element out before it hurts you.”

By now, Osric has managed to rise to his knees. There’s blood on his dirt-streaked face from several cuts on his skin, and Tahmoh and Jared share a look.

_He’s not healing as quickly._

“We can save you, Osric,” Emily calls out, “before the element kills you.”

Osric looks from person to person as if he’s sizing them up: Emily at the back, the soldiers off to one side with their guns trained on him, and Jared on the other with Jensen in the air just ahead of him. Jared watches Osric pick up a jagged bar of steel–part of the building’s framework they’d just destroyed–and weigh it in his hands. Immediately, Jensen’s power blazes brighter; he flies closer, ready to defend himself.

“I’m gonna have to turn you down, Doc,” Osric scoffs. “Sorry.”

Jensen roars. “You can’t beat me, Osric!”

Osric looks up with a cruel smile, eyes as black and cold as the deepest reaches of the ocean.

“I know.”

The metal whistles as it spirals through the air at a ridiculously high speed.

Filled with terror, Jared can only look at Jensen and scream, warning him to move or deflect the steel spear cutting towards them.

The whistling stops.

Jared feels a cold stab of relief race through him when he sees Jensen remains unharmed. Osric missed his target.

Someone is still screaming.

Confused, Jared looks down. He doesn’t understand what he’s seeing until the icy feeling melts beneath a white-hot layer of excruciating pain.

The jagged steel bar sticks out of his body, just below his stomach. He wants to scream, but there’s no room in his chest for more air. He blinks and suddenly finds himself on the ground looking up.

He didn’t even feel the fall.

When Jared goes down, all hell breaks loose.

Entranto feels the air burn hotter around him as Ackles bellows in rage; the green flames flickering along his skin burst into an inferno of power that hits all of them, including Dr. Chau.

In the following seconds, Entranto hears Penikett fire his gun, one _bang_ after another as he empties his clip in Chau’s direction. Chau is faster, though; he rolls and uses the debris around him as shields, bullets ricocheting off metal and spider-webbing into the thick, tempered glass. The look on the colonel’s face is devastating; his rage is no less genuine than the superhero’s.

Dr. Swallow rushes to Jared’s side. She can’t do much with her broken arm, but she uses her good hand to put pressure around the wound. Even Entranto knows it won’t be enough.

“Jared, hey! Look at me, Jared!” she cries, agony twisting her expression.

Entranto grabs the radio he borrowed from the FBI vehicle and calls for the paramedics, heart turning to stone when he realizes it’ll take them a few minutes to make it to the building from the perimeter. And he’s seen injuries like this on battlefields around the world; there’s not much the paramedics will be able to do anyway.

Penikett’s bullets might be useless, but Ackles’ powers are unmatched. The ground shakes as he sends wave after wave of power in Chau’s direction. The colonel can’t get close, though that doesn’t stop him from reloading his gun and firing again.

Entranto looks for an opening, remembering the plan they had before Ackles and Chau came crashing through the side of the building. Before he can move, Dr. Swallow is yelling for him.

“Roland!”

He limps as quickly as he can over unsteady ground. Jared’s wound is even worse up close, the skin a mess around the steel bar, blood everywhere. Sweating and gasping, Jared’s head rolls from side to side as he struggles to breathe.

“I called for help,” Entranto mutters. 

Dr. Swallow is already shaking her head. “He doesn’t have that long. He’s gonna die unless we do something right now.”

The thought hits him like a lightning strike. _Jared has to survive._ If he dies–if Jensen Ackles loses his husband, his anchor in this world–there’s no telling what will happen. Entranto only knows that it would be catastrophic.

“Tell me what to do.”

“I need Jensen!” Dr. Swallow tells him, an edge of determination in her voice. “If he uses enough power, he might be able to heal Jared like he heals himself. But there’s not much time!”

Entranto nods, a plan already taking shape. “Okay.”

“Roland–”

She looks up at him, and Entranto sees everything he needs to know in her shining, brown eyes.

Despite the explosions of power hitting him, Chau isn’t going down easily. Ackles is too emotional, consumed by his rage and the fear of losing Jared. The colonel is yelling for him to stop and think, to give them a chance to attack the _right_ way, yet it does him no good. Ackles is irrational, lost to fury, and nothing is breaking through that battle haze.

Switching tactics, Ackles releases a concentrated burst of energy that knocks Chau onto his back. With a loud cry that echoes with heartbreak, Ackles digs his bare hands into the asphalt of the parking lot and rips up a piece the size of a small car, rising into the air and dropping it on the spot where Chau is struggling to crawl away. Chau barely has a chance to raise his arms and cover his face before the entire thing lands on top of him.

Entranto knows his plan is insane, but he moves towards the fight, his chest aching with every step, and raises his weapon. He whispers a prayer for the first time in years and hopes he’s not wrong.

Penikett sees him and shouts, “Wait, don’t!”

He aims the gun and pulls the trigger.

The bullet never hits Ackles–it burns up in the energy surrounding his body–but it’s enough for Ackles to stop and turn blazing eyes towards Entranto.

Shit, he looks pissed off. It’s no wonder, with Entranto still aiming a gun at his chest.

“You have to stop!” Entranto screams, taking his one and only chance now that he’s got the superhero’s full attention. “Jared needs you!”

As soon as Ackles’ feet touch the ground, Entranto turns and points back to where Dr. Swallow is doing everything she can to keep Jared breathing.

“You can save him!”

Now that Ackles is closer, his power recedes enough for Entranto to see his eyes, hope outshining despair.

“Go,” Entranto urges. “You’re the only one who can help him! Penikett and I will contain Chau,” he adds, hoping he sounds more confident than he feels.

Ackles nods and lets his power carry him to Jared’s side in a split-second. Entranto watches Dr. Swallow say something to him before taking his hands and laying them around the steel bar that’s pierced Jared’s chest.

The dry laugh coming from behind him is the last thing Entranto wants to hear. He takes a deep breath and turns to meet the cold, black eyes of the real monster he allowed to escape from his base.

“Really surprised you’re still alive, Sarge,” Dr. Chau says, voice full of derision. He’s somehow managed to pull himself out from beneath the asphalt, dust and crumbled stone covering him from head to toe.

“Someone needs to make sure you answer for the people you’ve hurt.” Face to face with Chau, Entranto is seething. He now understands the kind of rage that was fueling Ackles. “For Dr. Fergus.”

Penikett edges closer from the opposite side, forming a barrier with Entranto between Dr. Chau and where Jared lies, still motionless, with Emily and Ackles crouched over him. Together, they have a shot at distracing Chau long enough for Ackles to perform a miracle.

Time. That’s all they need.

“I’ve kind of got my own agenda now.” Chau looks between them. “Sure you guys wanna do this?”

“More than anything,” Penikett growls. “This ends here.”

It’s almost as if Chau is amused by their conviction. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll get what I need and then you’ll see how wrong you are.” He reaches down and grabs a piece of the asphalt boulder Ackles dropped on him, tossing it up and catching it as if it was a baseball. “Or,” he shrugs, “maybe you won’t.”

The rock comes at Entranto too fast for him to dodge it. He takes the hit on his upper chest, pain burning throughout his entire body as he stumbles, yet stays on his feet.

“I’m getting good at this!” Chau declares with sadistic glee, picking up another piece and letting it fly. This one hits Entranto’s right arm and sends his gun flying through the air and landing far out of reach.

Behind Chau’s back, the colonel moves steadily, coming around in his blindspot. Penikett has a firm grip on his gun and he meets Entranto’s stare over Chau’s shoulder. The colonel’s expression is full of pain and determination; he would die for his friends. Now, Entranto finally understands why.

Throughout his career, Entranto has always followed orders. There have been missions he questioned, directives he didn’t like. But not here. He knows with absolute certainty that he’s standing right where he needs to be. And though his pulse beats hard, the rhythm is steady.

In the next few seconds, he can see that Penikett has realized what Entranto is trying to do. He gets a sharp nod of acknowledgement in return, trying to ignore the way Penikett’s eyes darken in agony.

“Come on!” Chau shouts. “I thought you’d put up more of a fight than this!”

Chest heaving with every labored breath, Entranto scoffs. “You want a fight?” He picks up the nearest piece of debris he can use as a weapon: a steel reinforcing bar with bits of concrete still attached. When he swings it, Entranto does his best not to show how badly it hurts.

“Much better,” Chau grins right before he charges.

The fight doesn’t last long. Yet, for Entranto, it feels like an eternity. He dodges punches, his muscles screaming as they twist and burn, but he can’t move fast enough. He hits Chau once, striking him on the upper arm, and pulls back for another swing just as Chau slams his fist into the side of Entranto’s rib cage.

He not only feels his unbroken ribs crack, he _hears_ them. 

Still, he stays on his feet. Chau is watching him with a sneer, ash on his cheeks and nothing in his eyes. Entranto looks for Penikett and takes a deep breath, tightening his grip on the rebar in his hands. With Chau so close, he takes one more wild swing, the motion coming to an abrupt stop as Chau grabs the other end of the steel bar. He snaps his end off like it’s a twig, and circles his arm, driving his piece straight into Entranto’s chest.

“I told you, Sarge,” Chau mutters, forcing the steel further in, “you can’t stop me.”

Entranto looks over Chau’s shoulder and laughs. “No, but he can.”

Even with his enhanced abilities, Chau can’t react fast enough when he feels the barrel of Penikett’s gun press against the side of his head. The colonel doesn’t hesitate before he pulls the trigger.

The force of the discharge sends Entranto staggering back. He can’t hear much, but he feels the rebar pull out of his chest as he and Chau both fall to the ground. Entranto blinks slowly and watches Chau lie there, black ash around his head where blood ought to be. All that matters is that he’s unconscious–possibly dead, though Entranto can’t bring himself to care.

_It worked._

He sees Penikett above him. It feels like he’s drowning in cement, every limb too heavy to move. Finally, he starts to hear what the colonel is saying.

“–just hang on, alright? I’ll get Emily. Maybe Jensen can–”

Entranto coughs, clearing his throat of something thick and warm. “No he has to...save Jared. It’s okay.”

“There’s time,” Penikett insists. “We can save you both.”

Entranto attempts to nod, knowing that it’s not true. He uses what little strength he has to turn his head away from the ugly sight of Chau’s motionless body to look for Jared and the others. What he sees puts enough air in his lungs for one full, painless breath.

The air around Jared’s wound is shimmering with luminous green energy. Above him, Ackles’ face is a mask of love and unfailing concentration. Entranto hears Penikett call out to them, turning Dr. Swallow’s gaze away from where she’s watching Jared’s body heal itself using Ackles’ energy.

Something in the air changes. Instead of burning hot with rage, it feels cool like a balm. He blinks again and finds Dr. Swallow– _Emily_ –by his side, holding his hand with her good arm.

“Jared?” he asks.

“It’s working,” she whispers back, “thanks to you. If you hadn’t–”

He squeezes her hand; he’s already gotten exactly what he needs. Entranto looks over one more time and finds Ackles staring back. 

“I’m sorry,” he mouths, watching Ackles dip his head in gratitude.

With Tahmoh steady at his shoulder and Emily holding his hand, Entranto exhales and finally feels the pain disappear.

Jared will never forget how it feels to have Jensen’s power healing him from the inside out.

At first, everything is pain. When he goes down, he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to move again. Every breath makes him want to scream, but he knows he must hang on long enough to see Jensen put an end to Osric’s rampage.

Then Emily appears by his side and tells him it will be okay. With one hand, she tries to apply pressure around the steel protruding from his torso–he can’t see it, but he can feel it–while her eyes beg him stay strong. It’s chaos after that. Jared feels the ground quake, though the tremors from the fight are nothing compared to the way his chest shakes when he tries to inhale. He wants to turn his head so he can find Jensen and call for him. Osric is still out there, however, and Jared knows someone needs to take him down first and foremost.

And then Jensen is suddenly there, filling his narrowing field of vision. Jared is so grateful to have this final chance to say _everything_ , to tell his husband how he wouldn’t trade the last week for anything. Holding Jensen again, loving him again after three years of misery, is worth paying any price.

He doesn’t get to say any of it, because Emily starts telling Jensen to hold him, one hand pressing down on either side of the makeshift spear. Jared wishes he had the strength to ask one of them what’s happening, but that’s the moment Jensen focuses the sum of his power in Jared’s direction. It’s pain _on top of_ pain: a cleansing fire sweeping through his body.

Jared looks up then, silently begging for the misery to end, and that’s when he witnesses the power fading from Jensen’s eyes, leaving only his humanity; Jensen’s soul is right there in his perfect, green eyes, and Jared can’t look away.

Just like that, the pain becomes something else. It’s a sensation beyond anything Jared’s ever felt or could hope to feel, almost as if soothing flames are wrapped around each cell in his body, protecting him and putting him back together. Either Jared’s mind has shut his nerves down and created the illusion to spare him further agony or Jared is _healing_.

Through sore eyes, Jared watches Jensen and Emily look at one another. His husband nods once, the pressure of his hands never easing as Emily reaches down and pulls the steel out of his body.

Jared seizes, his spine arching as it tries to follow the movement of the spear, and expects to feel the anguish return. It’s as if the flames respond by embracing him even tighter, however; Jensen’s power burns brighter and brighter until Jared’s mind is consumed by white light. 

“Jared! Open your eyes for me. Please, Jared!”

With a gasp, Jared starts breathing again. He listens to Jensen’s voice as his lungs fill with cool, morning air, and when he does open his eyes, Emily is no longer there.

“Look at me, Jared. Come on…”

“Jensen?” he mutters, voice barely more than air rushing out of his mouth. Above him, Jensen’s eyes remain clear and bright.

“You’ve got to stay with me,” Jensen implores. “I don’t know what I’m doing–I’ve never done anything like this.”

“It’s okay,” Jared whispers. He can taste blood on his lips, feel the burn in his lungs as his body compensates for the momentary lack of oxygen. Willing his arm to move, Jared slowly reaches up and places his left hand over his husband’s on his own chest.

Jensen leans down, both of them surrounded by the brilliance of his power, and touches his lips to Jared’s forehead. “You once asked me to stay,” he says softly, “now I’m the one begging you not to leave me.”

“I’m not–” Jared tries to say, words getting caught in his throat. He squeezes Jensen’s hand and feels their wedding bands pressing into his skin. “Together, remember?”

Jensen is trembling, Jared can feel it in their joined hands. He’s not sure if it’s the aftermath of Jensen’s surge of power or something that runs deeper, more emotional. Little by little, the glow around them begins to fade and Jared can see blue sky. The air is quiet; he can’t hear the sound of fighting anymore, and he hopes the silence means that this ordeal is over.

When Jensen’s lips move further down his face and brush over his mouth, Jared finally starts to believe it.

Jared expects the FBI to descend upon the scene, so he’s surprised when a dozen men and women in Army fatigues show up in four, unmarked silver SUVs a few minutes after Jared has made it back onto his feet with Jensen’s help.

Covered in dirt and blood, Tahmoh walks over to one of the women in uniform and has a quiet discussion with her before she waves several soldiers forward. A few rush into the LifeSys building while others surround Osric Chau’s unconscious form.

“I called them for support when we were on our way over here,” Tahmoh explains once he returns to where Jared, Jensen, and Emily are keeping vigil over Roland Entranto’s body. “They’re a specialized unit, so don’t worry about them asking any questions. They’re here to assist and cooperate with the FBI so we don’t have to.”

At some point, Tahmoh had stripped off his jacket and draped it over Entranto’s chest. Emily had closed his unseeing eyes with careful fingers once she finally let go of the sergeant’s pale hand.

Looking down at the man he’d known for barely more than a week, Jared is filled with remorse. He didn’t know Entranto well, and he definitely hadn’t liked him when they met at Fort Jasper; something in his attitude had changed, however, by the time he showed up with Tahmoh in Vancouver. There was a humility and sense of determination in his actions, as if he was trying to atone for his assumptions and mistakes. Osric’s destructive spree wasn’t Entranto’s fault–it wasn’t Jensen’s, either–yet the sergeant appeared to shoulder most of the responsibility.

“He knew what he was doing,” Tahmoh tells them, “I could see it in his eyes.”

Emily nods. “If he hadn’t distracted Osric, Jensen never would have been able to help Jared in time.”

Standing at Jared’s side, Jensen remains silent. By the expression on his face, Jared knows his husband is conflicted. He regrets the loss of the man who fought alongside them, who made it possible for Jensen to save Jared’s life, yet Jared is sure he’s also remembering the way he lived like a prisoner in Entranto’s bunker, a victim to the will of the meteorite.

“Come on,” Tahmoh says, breaking the silence. “They’ll take us back to their facility so we can get you guys checked out.”

“I’m fine,” Jared insists. He wants to go home and curl up in bed with Jensen, where they can deal with the weight of what’s happened and once again forget about everything beyond the two of them.

Of course, Jensen is right there to side with Tahmoh and coax Jared away. “Emily’s arm needs medical attention and so do you, Jared.”

“They’ll take good care of him, Em,” Tahmoh reassures as he steers Emily towards a waiting SUV. The woman he’d spoken to is standing just out of earshot in deference to their superior officer along with two others and a stretcher, ready to carefully remove the body of one of their own.

They’re almost to the vehicles when Jensen comes to an abrupt stop, setting them all on edge.

“Wait.” Jensen’s eyes narrow. He turns and looks back to Osric, now lying on a stretcher surrounded by military personnel. “I can feel him. He’s still alive.”

Jared’s body is fresh out of adrenaline, but that doesn’t stop him from freezing as his brain tries to decide: _fight or flight?_

“How? What about the shot to the head?” Tahmoh asks, already reaching for his weapon and stepping protectively in front of the group.

Jensen shakes his head. “The element is healing him.”

The colonel frowns. “As soon as we get to the facility, can you draw it out like Emily said?”

Jared tenses, and he feels Jensen grip his hip a little tighter. A dozen scenarios flash through his mind, each one more terrible than the last. “What if he wakes up on the way there? We can’t let anything else happen.”

“Jared’s right,” Emily says. “We need to do it now before he regains consciousness.”

“He’s still in the process of healing,” Jensen explains, attuned to the way the element is working within Osric’s body. “If I draw it out now, there’s still a chance he could die.”

The thought pops into Jared’s mind– _would that be such a bad thing?_ –though he regrets it almost immediately. Osric is human, and while the idea to steal energy from the meteorite may have come from a fierce scientific curiosity, there’s no telling how much the element had warped his mind. Dr. Chau will never face traditional justice, but, if he survives, Jared knows Tahmoh will make sure he’s held responsible for his atrocities.

It’s Tahmoh who makes the decision. “Do it.”

Jared doesn’t want to watch, yet he’s unwilling to take his eyes off Jensen. Not when he can still feel the phantom wound where the steel struck him and the thready remnants of Jensen’s powers healing him from the inside out. His husband squares his shoulders and steps over to the stretcher holding Osric while Tahmoh clears the soldiers away to a safe distance.

From here, Jared can see some of the inky, black residue that surrounds the hole Tahmoh’s bullet left in Osric’s skull, standing out in stark contrast to his now-pale skin. Emily steps closer and tucks herself against Jared’s side, keeping her injured arm pulled into her chest. Together, they watch Tahmoh and Jensen trade looks across Osric’s body before Jensen reaches out and places his right hand on Osric’s chest.

There’s a flash of light–nothing like the radiant glow that enveloped Jared when Jensen healed him–and Jensen throws his head back. His eyes blaze with a familiar radiance as he taps into his own power in order to drain the element’s energy out of Osric. Seconds later, the light recedes as the energy settles into Jensen’s body. When he steps back, Jared sees that all the black ashy matter in Osric’s eyes, in the wound at his temple, is gone. In its place are smears of blood, left behind where the element no longer consumes the doctor.

Tahmoh leans over and cautiously checks for a pulse. He waits for a moment before looking back and nodding.

Osric’s alive.

Jared turns away; he won’t spare another thought for the cosmologist. Not when Jensen is walking towards him, his hand already out for Jared to take.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jensen says, and Jared couldn’t agree more.

Once the soldiers step back in to take over handling Osric, Tahmoh leads Emily to one of the vehicles and tells Jared and Jensen to get into the one idling behind. Their driver’s eyes are pointed straight ahead as if he’s been ordered to keep his presence as unobtrusive as possible.

It’s not until Jared is leaning back against the leather seat, one of Jensen’s arms behind his back and the other on Jared’s thigh, that he finally breathes easy. No longer held at bay by pain and adrenaline, exhaustion washes over Jared like a wave pulling him towards sleep, and it occurs to him that, besides his brief post-orgasmic bliss nap twelve hours ago, he hasn’t slept in more than 24 hours. He doesn’t know how far the facility is, but he doubts he’ll be able to keep his eyes open on the way.

Jared lets his mind drift as he considers the possibilities of what comes next. Beyond the Army facility and getting checked out by their doctors, beyond finding his way back to Vancouver and letting Tahmoh help them officially bring Jensen back to life. On paper, that is.

“What are you thinking about?” Jensen asks, the motion of the SUV rocking them back and forth.

“I’m thinking about Argentina,” Jared responds, voice soft and dreamy as the idea unfolds in his mind. “I’m thinking about you and I hiking the glaciers in Patagonia.”

He doesn’t need to look over to know that Jensen is smiling when he says, “Me too.”

**AFTER THE CREDITS HAVE ROLLED BY…**

Sergeant Nadia Jimenez steps out of her office and takes in the sight of Fort Jasper’s operations center with pride. The wide, digital screens are full of information being monitored from a dozen workstations manned by a mix of old personnel and new transfers.

It took the Army six months to rebuild the site after the damage caused by Dr. Osric Chau. Thanks to Colonel Penikett pulling a few strings, they’re finally back up and running. With a revamped directive and a promotion, Sergeant Jimenez found herself in charge of both surveillance and the base’s new mission in scientific advancements.

The bunker that laid in ruins after Dr. Chau’s attack had been rebuilt entirely. There, a team handpicked by Colonel Penikett and herself would conduct safe and monitored research on unique artifacts and elements like _Entrantium_ in the hopes of preventing incidents like New Orleans and what happened on this very base in the future.

Jimenez smiles when she remembers the little ceremony held at the base when the element they’d had a hand in discovering was officially renamed in honor of their fallen former commanding officer. The memory causes her to glance over at a workstation at the far left of the room, where one of the monitors scrolls through updates regarding the whereabouts of two persons of interest. She likes to check in on Ackles and Padalecki every now and then; she has a feeling Staff Sergeant Entranto would approve. Seeing that the men are on their way back to Vancouver from Buenos Aires, she nods to herself. 

It’s good to get back to normal.

Heading back into her office, Jimenez stops when she hears her name called out. Across the room, a member of her surveillance unit is pointing at his screen and talking rapidly into his headset.

“What is it, Corporal?” she asks.

The corporal starts reading off data. “An unknown object entered the Earth’s atmosphere a few minutes ago. NASA feeds weren’t tracking anything.” He pauses, and Jimenez feels a chill walking down her spine. “It just came out of nowhere.”

“Where’s it going to hit?” she asks, not wasting any time. “Site J-4?”

“No ma’am,” the corporal says. “It’s headed for–”

**THE END.**

****

**THE WRITER WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE SMALL ARMY OF FRIENDS WHO MADE THIS STORY POSSIBLE. MOST NOTABLY AMY, WHO PUT UP WITH LAST MINUTE PANIC ATTACKS, AND CRIS, FOR BEING A FABULOUS INSPIRATION THROUGHOUT AND BROUGHT THIS VISION TO LIFE.**

**NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF THIS STORY.**


End file.
